alidvorak
Cute Carnivorous Critter
I took this photo of a Venus flytrap (scientific name Dionaea muscipula) on Wednesday, April 5th during my last Ecology lab session that we spent in the Bluethenthal Wildflower Preserve on UNCW's campus. This carnivorous plant is native to North and South Carolina and uses its small "hairs" as a trigger to close in on and then ingest any insect or arachnid that makes contact with the plant's "mouth." It takes several different triggers for the "jaws" to eventually shut, though, to ensure that the plant is ingesting something that's worth the expended energy, i.e. a crawling critter that would be a sufficient source of protein for the flytrap. Different prey of Venus flytraps include ants, beetles, flies, spiders, and so on. The National Wildlife Federation has classified the Venus flytrap as "vulnerable," and theft of any naturally growing Venus flytraps is considered a felony in some North Carolina counties. Also, I found it interesting that Venus flytrap extracts are used in medicine and, despite hard proof of medical benefits,
they are thought to help with certain illnesses such as Crohns' disease and skin cancer ("Venus flytrap," n.d.).
Cute Carnivorous Critter
I took this photo of a Venus flytrap (scientific name Dionaea muscipula) on Wednesday, April 5th during my last Ecology lab session that we spent in the Bluethenthal Wildflower Preserve on UNCW's campus. This carnivorous plant is native to North and South Carolina and uses its small "hairs" as a trigger to close in on and then ingest any insect or arachnid that makes contact with the plant's "mouth." It takes several different triggers for the "jaws" to eventually shut, though, to ensure that the plant is ingesting something that's worth the expended energy, i.e. a crawling critter that would be a sufficient source of protein for the flytrap. Different prey of Venus flytraps include ants, beetles, flies, spiders, and so on. The National Wildlife Federation has classified the Venus flytrap as "vulnerable," and theft of any naturally growing Venus flytraps is considered a felony in some North Carolina counties. Also, I found it interesting that Venus flytrap extracts are used in medicine and, despite hard proof of medical benefits,
they are thought to help with certain illnesses such as Crohns' disease and skin cancer ("Venus flytrap," n.d.).