The Venus flytrap is the most famous meat-eating plant in the world! It has special leaves that look like little green mouths with sharp “teeth” along the edges. Each mouth-shaped leaf has six tiny trigger hairs inside it, and here is the really cool part: a bug has to touch two of those hairs within about twenty seconds for the trap to snap shut. This keeps the plant from wasting energy closing on things like raindrops or bits of dirt. Venus flytraps only grow wild in one small area near the coast of North Carolina and South Carolina in the United States, making them extra special.
If a fly, spider, or ant crawls inside and triggers those tiny hairs, SNAP! The leaf closes tight in less than one second, which is one of the fastest movements in the entire plant kingdom. Once the trap is shut, the leaf seals up like a tiny green stomach and slowly digests the bug over about ten days. After that, the trap opens back up and is ready to catch again. Each trap can only snap shut about three to five times before it stops working, so the Venus flytrap has to make every catch count!
