The Venus Flytrap
Dionaea muscipula
By: Meagan Urban
The Venus Flytrap is a very interesting and unique plant. I have always been fond of them ever since learning about them in the fourth grade. The fact that it has adapted to take nutrients from insects because its soil is not that great is fascinating to me.
The botanical name for the Venus Flytrap is Dionaea muscipula. Its name originates from Greek and Latin, with Dionaea stemming from the Greek goddess Dione (the mother of Aphrodite) and Latin’s muscipula which means ‘mousetrap’ (Booman Floral
2003).
This plant can only be found in a small area in North Carolina and South Carolina. It lives in a very boggy area where the soil is poor and lacks the gases and nutrients that are found in other soils (Botanical Society of America). The soil would be considered sandy. These plants usually grow around the edges of swamps or in open, wet savannas (Booman Floral 2003). Out of World Wildlife’s fourteen major habitat types, Dionaea muscipula would fit into the ‘Tropical and Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas and Shrublands.’
The Venus Flytraps is a perennial plant, which means that its life cycle is completed in more than one year (Gurevitch et al. 2006). It takes approximately five years for this plant to reach full maturity and it can keep on living for twenty to thirty years. This is a very rare plant. Though the Dionaea muscipula was once plentiful, it is now endangered. This is due to habitat destruction such as building things in the area or the draining of the wetland for lumber (Booman Floral 2003). This plant is not invasive.
Venus Flytraps are popular with people because they are so interesting. They are found in many households. You can buy them at almost any local greenhouse for between five to twenty-five dollars. Something that is both humans and Venus Flytraps are that they get nutrients from another source.
Most plants are content getting nutrients and gases from the air and soil. But Venus Flytraps actually capture insects and digest them with enzymes of pH optima’s of 5.0 (Scala et al. 1969). The Dionaea muscipula opens its trap wide so that insects can land on it. The insects are attracted to the nectar that is on it’s surface. There are a few trigger hairs that are on this surface and when they are brushed two or three times the hairs send a message for the trap to close. It closes slowly so that if the insect is small, it is not wasting its time on digesting it because it will not receive enough nutrients. The long cilia at the ends interlock with each other and seal the insect in. From there, the plant is filled with fluid and enzymes to break down the prey. This process takes a few days. When it is finished with the insect, it opens up and the skeleton is taken away by the wind or rain. These ‘traps’ only catch three or four insects and then they die and fall off. If the trap is triggered and it did not catch anything, then it opens up as soon as a day later (Booman Floral 2003).
Figure 3: A good view of the trigger hairs
Figure 2: A victim of Dionaea muscipula that cause the closing of the trap
Figure 1: Venus Flytraps are found in the Carolinas (http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/venus-flytrap3.jpg) (http://content.answers.com/main/content/up/en-
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/venus_flytrap) commons/thumb/7/71/24)
Works Cited
Botanical Society of America. [cited 2008 Feb 17]. The Mysterious Venus’ Flytrap. Available from: http://www.botany.org/bsa/misc/carn.html
Gurevitch J, Schneider S, Fox G. 2006. The Ecology of Plants Second Edition. Sunderland (MA): Sinauer. 526 p.
Scala J, Iott K, Schwab W, Semersky FE. Digestive Secretion of Dionaea muscipula. Plant Physiology. 1969; 44: 367-371.
Venus Flytrap. c2003 [cited 2008 Feb 17]. Available from: http://boomanfloral.com/info_venusfltyrap.htm
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