Photo by Steve Apfelbaum

To learn more 

GENERAL READING

• ​The Fascinating Venus Flytrap: A Carnivorous Plant in Trouble
• Venus Flytrap Origins Uncovered
• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Southeast Region (includes a downloadable "Fact Sheet")
• ​Carnivores on the Forest Floor

Photo by Johnny Randall.

VIDEOS

• ​Science Insider: "What's Inside a Venus Flytrap?"
• ​Seasonal Science, UNC-TV:  "Venus Flytrap"
• Webinar on Venus Flytraps in the Southeast (recording) with Jessica Roach, UNC-Wilmington, hosted by Island Wildlife Chapter of NC Wildlife Federation
• ​A 2019 "Science Friday" (NPR) segment on Venus Flytrap includes a special "Macroscope" video featuring the Flytrap research of Elsa Youngsteadt and Laura Hamon of NC State University.
• A robotic "grabber" made using a Venus Flytrap leaf!

These short videos give a glimpse of Venus Flytrap habitat in longleaf pine forests and explain the importance of fire to the health of these habitats and the survival of this and other native plant species.

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Studying Venus Flytrap habitat. Photo by Don Waller.

PUBLISHED SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

If you are interested in delving more deeply, we've compiled a list of recent research into the biology and ecology of Dionaea muscipula, Venus Flytrap:

• Testing Darwin's hypothesis about the wonderful Venus Flytrap: marginal spikes form a “Horrid Prison” for moderate-sized insect prey (The American Naturalist)
• Genomes of the Venus Flytrap and close relatives unveil the roots of plant carnivory (Current Biology)
• Plant genome evolution: meat lovers expanded gene families for carnivory and dropped the rest (Current Biology)
• Venus flytrap trigger hairs are micronewton mechano-sensors that can detect small insect prey (NaturePlants)
• Snapping mechanics of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)  (PNAS)