This plant has fascinated even Charles Darvin, when he saw it for for the first time. The “Venus Flytrap” is able to close itself with incredible speed, if it is warm and a little bit slower if the weather is coldly. When the plant has catched it’s prey,

it starts to close itself and tighten up the trap more and more till it gets almost flat. In the inside an enzym is beeing separated, which takes down the fence of the plant and the remained fluid is beeing absorbed by the plant.

Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap) is found natively only in North Carolina in the United States and can’t be successfully transplated in any other places around the world (except in flowerpot). It fast lost the battle for its spreading, because swamps, which the plant dwells, slowly dry up and all other trials to find it a new home were frustrated.

 The mechanism and speed, by which the plant traps its preys, makes it unique among the whole vegetable world. In fact, there is another water plant, called Aldrovanda, which has almost the same mechanism, but it is not raised in artificial ways as the Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap).

 Three trigger hairs can be found on each of the 2 lobed sides of the Venus Flytrap which make up the trap and any wandering insect that triggers two of these hairs is in big trouble as the trap closes upon it and the spiky fringe creates a kind of prison. There is a built in mechanism which tells the plant that if only 1 hair is triggered it could be a false signal but if two are triggered it usually means dinner. The reason for this mechanism is that the plant uses a great deal of stored energy in closing the trap and so it doesn't want to waste it on false alerts.