Post by Toni on Feb 12, 2009 23:11:59 GMT -5
Habitat: Venus fly traps are found in boggy areas in North and South Carolina. They prefer to grow in poor, acidic soil. They also grow in areas that have high humidity, damp soil , and lots of sunlight. Since many people found intrest in studying Venus Fly Traps and took them, now this plant is almost extinct. Now Venus Fly Traps are usually grown in Green Houses.
Survival: This plant obtains nutrients from the air, soil, and water like most other plants. What makes it different is that this plant is carniverous [or meat-eating].
Diet: The Venus Fly Trap survives off of inscects. There is no specific bug this plant preys on.
There are three main part of this plant that help it capture food. To capture its food, the Venus Fly Trap has Lobes, Cilia, and Trigger Hairs. When an inscect goes on one of the lobes, if it bends one of the ultra sensitive Trigger Hairs the Lobes close shut in less than a second. The Cilia keep larger inscets from escaping, since the Lobes don't completly shut at first. After a few minutes the Lobes seal shut to keep digestive fluids in and bacteria out. In 5 to 12 days after the inscect is digested, the trap reopens. Since the plant only digested the inner part of the bug and not its exoskeleton, the hard outer shell of the inscect washes away in the rain or blows away in the wind.
If bug that isn't big enough to provide nutrients for the plant activates one of the trigger hairs, it will escape between the small opening between the lobes when the trap first shuts. If the bug is too big it will hang out of the lobes and the trap will die and fall of the plant. If something non-living accidentally gets caught in the trap, the plant will 'spit' it out in about 12 hours.
Facts:
-Venus fly traps are autotrophs
-They can survive underwater for months
-They can go without inscects for about a month