Table of Contents
Fast Facts
Read Next
Media
Animals & Nature
Venus flytrap
plant
Feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External Websites
- Botanical Society of America - Dionaea muscipula - The Venus Flytrap
- AZ Animals - Venus flytrap
- Frontiers - Shapeshifting in the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Morphological and biomechanical adaptations and the potential costs of a failed hunting cycle
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - Venus Fly Trap
Britannica Websites
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
Also known as: Dionaea muscipula, Venus’s flytrap
Venus flytrap
Category:
Animals & Nature
- Related Topics:
- carnivorous plant
Venus flytrap, (Dionaea muscipula), also called Venus’s flytrap, perennial carnivorous plant of the sundew family (Droseraceae), notable for its unusual habit of catching and digesting insects and other small animals. The only member of its genus, the plant is native to a small region of North and South Carolina, where it is common in damp mossy areas. As photosynthetic plants, Venus flytraps do not rely on carnivory for energy but rather use the nitrogen-rich animal proteins to enable their survival in marginal soil conditions. The plant, which grows from a bulblike rootstock, bears a group of small white flowers at ...(100 of 223 words)