Amazing Facts About Venus Flytraps

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Venus Flytraps are amazing plants that snap their traps within less than a second to catch their prey. It is really unbelievable that a plant can be so quick.

Fact 1 Description Of The Venus Flytrap
The structure of the Venus Flytrap is quite small. About 4 to 7 leaves form a rosette arising from a tiny stem that looks like a bulb. It is the subterranean. The utmost size of each stem depends on the season and is mostly between 3 and 10 cm. The traps are formed after flowering of the plant. Longer leaves are also found which have stronger traps. The particular variety of Venus Flytraps that have 7 leaves form colonies. The leaves of the rosette of this type of Flytrap are of the same height. These have two parts namely the flat part and the heart-shaped section which are formed under the ground. They together form the rosette.

Fact 2 Habitat
Venus Flytraps grow in wet and sandy soil and prefer the savanna-type of environments where the soil is poor in nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous. Their native habitat is the sub-tropical Green swampland, east coast of United States and South and North Carolina. To survive these plants gather nutrition mostly from the gases available in the air and insects that they devour and little nutrition from the poor soil where they thrive.

Fact 3 How Venus Flytraps Catch Their Prey
It is really astonishing to watch this plant catching its prey for food. It has especially designed trapping system. It first attracts insects like flies and ants into the trap which has a reddish color. There are small glands along the rim that secrete nectar and the insects mistake it to be a flower containing honey. The leaves of the Venus Flytrap have sensitive hairs which are stiff and short. They are called trigger. They form the traps. As soon as anything sits on these leaves the two lobes of the leaves shut immediately within a fraction of a second thus trapping the prey. It is found that if tiny insects enter the trap, it does not close completely and allows it to escape because it cannot provide sufficient food for the plant.

Fact 4 The Digestion Process
They have a specific system of digesting their food which consists mainly of beetles, spiders and other arthropods that move about in swarms. As soon as the insects are captured, the lobe secretes antiseptic as well as digestive juices and even if the prey is not utilized immediately it is purified by these juices to prevent decaying for a few days inside the trap.

Fact 5 Uniqueness Of The Venus Flytraps
These carnivorous plants are extremely sensitive. Although the trap of the plant shuts immediately when something enters it and the leaves are forced to curl inside, the trap reopens if the object is not their food. Suppose a nut or may be a stone is trapped inside, the Venus Flytraps spit it out even after 12 hours. It is just unbelievable.
This special feature of the plant is known to all. Hence enthusiastic people often try to perceive the plant catching its prey right before their eyes. But if you offer something immovable or dead insect, it does not close tightly. It first ascertains if the object is actual food that is sufficient for it, then it closes tightly. If you can create a motion with the object imitating the movement of a live insect, then it will open the trap or else you need to forcibly open it.

Fact 6
Venus Flytraps have become an endangered species nowadays for being plucked out from their natural habitat and now they are being grown in greenhouses.

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