Unlike other carnivorous plants, Venus flytraps catch their prey with snap traps. The inside of the trap, which resembles a trap iron, is reddened and magically attracts insects. But as soon as these settle on the surface covered with tentacles, the trap snaps shut and the Venus flytrap begins to digest.

The Venus Flytrap uses a secretion to dissolve its prey

This is how the plant checks its prey

Not every object caught by the Venus Flytrap is edible prey. Before digestion begins, the plant verifies that it is indeed a consumable insect.

There are various receptors inside the trap that react to chemical and movement stimuli. If the caught object is not edible, the trap will reopen after a few hours.

What happens when a Venus flytrap digests

Once the prey has been determined to be a digestible insect, the digestion process begins. A secretion is released for this, the

  • protease
  • amylase
  • phosphatase
  • ribonuclease

contains. The secretion dissolves the prey and deprives it of nutrients. This process takes up to ten days. Then the trap opens again.

Only indigestible remains such as the chitin armor or the legs remain. Do not remove these remnants, because then the trap will close again.

After seven catches it's over

Unfortunately, the lifespan of the traps of a Venus flytrap is not unlimited. It only opens a maximum of seven times. After the seventh time at the latest, the trap and the leaf die off. This is a normal process and not due to a maintenance error.

Therefore, do not play with the traps too often, nor put your finger in the catch trap for fun. If at all, only feed live insects that are no more than a third the size of the trap flap.

If the trap dies before then, it may be due to an oversupply of food or because the insect caught was simply too big.

tips

The closing of a Venus flytrap's trap happens so quickly that you can hardly follow it with your eyes. The movement is one of the fastest possible in the animal kingdom.

Category:

Vegetable garden