The Venus flytrap is considered a carnivore. However, not only their diet is special. Here you can find everything you need to know about the Venus Flytrap.
The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) comes from the sundew family (Droseraceae) and loves meat on its menu. It originally comes from North America, but today it is also very popular with us. The carnivorous Venus flytrap is a highlight for many children, but it is also absolutely fascinating for all the young at heart hobby gardeners among us. Plantura reveals the most exciting facts about the carnivorous Venus Flytrap and how you can successfully keep them at home.
Venus Flytrap: A Little Wanted Poster
Originally, the Venus flytrap comes from North America, more precisely from North and South Carolina. Since it was first mentioned in 1768, it first migrated within the USA towards Florida, and then to Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. The Venus Flytrap has now adapted to many environments, but is still considered a very exotic species.
Venus Flytrap: The Catching Leaves
The Venus flytrap's most distinctive feature is its trapping leaves. When open, they resemble a wide-open maw that greedily awaits its prey. Fully developed trapping leaves have a red border in the middle or are colored completely red to simulate flowers and thus attract prey. The so-called "snap-trap" closes in less than a tenth of a second after receiving a stimulus - making the Venus flytrap one of the fastest movements in the plant kingdom. However, the movement performed by the catch blades is not active, but passive. The pre-tensioned leaves are held open by their special curvature. If an insect keeps touching the fringing hairs, the snap trap relaxes and strikes.
As the name suggests, the prey is caught by rapidly folding the trapping leaves. The signal thatThe stimulus mechanism is triggered by touching small sensory hairs (three to nine) on the edge of the leaf. After the leaves close, the prey is decomposed via secretions and, as it were, digested. When this process is complete, the trapping leaves open again and the Venus Flytrap is ready to catch new prey with its trapping device.
Buy Venus Flytrap
Venus fly traps are now available in every well-stocked plant shop. Of course you can also order plants or seeds online. When buying locally, however, you should pay attention to a few important details of your dream plant. Above all, the catching leaves are an important indication of whether the plant is he althy: They should be open and bright green, then you can assume that nobody has touched the catching leaves for fun and triggered the mechanism without real prey. Because the catch leaves can usually only repeat the closing process six to seven times, which is why every empty closure means a weakening. An early plant costs between four and five euros, seeds are available for three to four euros per ten seeds (often including the growing substrate).
Venus Flytrap Flowers
The Venus Flytrap flowers in early spring. What is special about it are the extremely long flower stalks, which often exceed the rest of the plant by 30 cm. This large distance between trapping leaves and flowers has the advantage that pollinating insects do not accidentally end up on the Venus flytrap's menu. The color of the flowers is white, their diameter is between two and three centimeters. More information about Venus flytrap flowers can be found here.
Reproduce Venus Flytrap: By Seed or Division
There are two ways to self-propagate your own Venus Flytrap. In addition to harvesting and sowing your own seeds, you can also provide your Venus flytrap with offspring by dividing. In the following we explain how this works and what you have to pay attention to
Propagating Venus Flytrap: Harvesting and Sowing Seeds
First, your Venus Flytrap can be propagated by the seeds that emerge from the flowers. The most important thing is that the flowers have actually been pollinated. WantTo be on the safe side, you'll need to pollinate the flowers yourself using a brush.
As soon as the pollinated flower has dried up, you can be sure that the seed is also ripe. To harvest, simply cut off the flower and tap it lightly over a plate or bowl. You can also tie a plastic bag over the dried flower and wait until the seeds leave the flower capsule on their own.
Note: Until the seeds can be sown again, you should store them in a cool and dark place to keep germination as high as possible.
The right time to sow your Venus Flytrap seeds is in early spring. It takes almost three quarters of a year from harvesting to sowing your own seeds. The most important thing when sowing the seeds in brief:
- Fill the pot with plant substrate (peat-sand mixture)
- Wet well
- Distribute seeds on the surface (light germinators)
- Press gently
- Put plastic bag on if necessary
- Choose a sunny location
Note: It is perfectly normal for the plants to take 20 to 30 days to germinate. So don't worry if your seed doesn't sprout straight away. If it takes longer, the reason may be that the seed is too old. Whenever possible, use seeds from the previous year to propagate your Venus flytrap.
You can find detailed instructions on how to propagate the Venus Flytrap by seeds here.
Reproduce Venus Flytrap by Division
Propagation by division is also best done in early spring, as that is when you would normally repot your Venus flytrap anyway. In doing so, one does not propagate offshoots in the classic sense, as is often wrongly assumed, but only divides the rhizome. This is an underground shoot axis that can always sprout again. How to divide Venus Flytrap:
- Carefully remove Venus flytrap from pot
- Gently pull apart the leaves and stems so that you get small individual plants
- Ensure that there are enough roots on each offshoot
- Put offshoots in plant substrate
- Ensure adequate sun exposure
You can also find detailed instructions on how to propagate the Venus flytrap by dividing it here in our expert guideArticle.
Venus Flytrap: The Real Earth
As a carnivorous, i.e. carnivorous plant, the Venus flytrap is an exotic species among our indoor plants. Therefore, it also places special demands on its plant substrate. Conventional substrates are not suitable for cultivating the Venus Flytrap. It obtains the vast majority of its nutrients from the decomposition of prey in its trapping leaves, which is why most substrates would have too high a nutrient concentration for the Venus flytrap. However, the most important thing is good permeability of the substrate.
The Venus Flytrap grows best if it is grown in a suitable substrate, such as Floragard special soil for carnivorous plants. Due to their acidic pH value and the low proportion of nutrients, carnivore soils are perfectly adapted to the needs of moor plants. In addition, the special soil supports a balanced water balance, which benefits the Venus flytrap.
"You can find more detailed information about the cultivation of the Venus Flytrap and the right plant substrate here.
Watering the Venus flytrap: keep waterlogged instead of dry
Unlike many of our beloved garden and pot plants, the Venus flytrap loves it overly humid, if not to say wet. It has proven useful to place the plants in their pots on a suitable saucer that always has a little water.
You can find more tips on how to water the Venus flytrap correctly here.
Feed Venus Flytrap
The Venus Flytrap isn't particularly hungry, so it catches enough prey without your intervention. However, if you would like to initiate the spectacle yourself, there is nothing to be said against it. However, there are a few things to keep in mind when feeding your Venus Flytrap.
- Don't put your finger between the catch leaves
Each trap closure without live prey wastes energy and means one fewer closure for the Venus Flytrap to sustain. However, to satisfy understandable curiosity, it's okay to one-time the catch leaves through yourfinger touch.
- Do not feed dead insects
The digestion of the Venus flytrap only starts when the prey emits enough stimuli through the constant movement. If you kill the prey beforehand, the end of the catch leaves is like an empty end and only means unnecessary expenditure of energy.
- The right size is crucial
For the mechanism to work fully, the size of the prey is crucial. Animals that are too small can often escape, animals that are too large can fight their way free or die without being able to be digested. As a rule of thumb, the prey should be about 1/3 the length of the trapping apparatus to ensure effective digestion.
You can find more about feeding the Venus Flytrap here.
Repot Venus Flytrap: When and how?
The Venus Flytrap should be repotted at least once a year. You can tell when the time is right when the pot is completely criss-crossed with roots and the above-ground parts of the plant are already overhanging the side of the pot. In terms of the season, the best time to decide on repotting is early spring, as that is when the best conditions prevail to give the Venus flytrap an optimal start after the stressful repotting.
For repotting, prepare a new, larger pot with fresh substrate, in which you then carefully move your Venus flytrap. It is important that you use a suitable substrate, as the Venus flytrap places special demands on its soil. You can buy special carnivore soil in specialist shops, or you can mix your own personal carnivore plant substrate.
In our special article, we explain step by step exactly how this works and how to properly repot your Venus flytrap.
Venus Flytrap in Winter
The Venus Flytrap is undemanding, but under no circumstances does it want to give up its hibernation. As soon as the newly formed trapping leaves are no longer as strong as before and no longer have a red inner seam, it is time to move your Venus flytrap to its winter quarters. A suitable place is, for example, an unheated stairwell or a basement room with daylight. In any case, the temperatures in the winter quarters should not fall below 5 °C.
Read our special article on Venus flytrap care for more care tips.
