of the carnivorous Venus Flytrap.
If you look closely you can see the short trigger hairs on the red base. When an insect touches the hair the fly trap closes around it and digests it. ooh, yuck!
Description from Wikipedia:
The Venus flytrap (also Venus's flytrap or Venus' flytrap), Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant native to subtropical wetlands on the East Coast of the United States. It catches its prey—chiefly insects and arachnids— with a trapping structure formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves and is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap closes if a different hair is contacted within twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against a waste of energy in trapping objects with no nutritional value.
this is a brilliant shot Chantal - they are brilliant plants - I also love the pitcher plants - a friend grows those and has one so large he feeds it baby frozen mice - how bizarre is that
I love these plants and this one would be happy here, the flies have come early this Spring. Nice shot Chantal - the black background sets your subject off well.
Great fun! I've seen these growing prolifically on the eastern seaboard of the US, but never in Leicestershire - and I have a place in Market Harborough too!
@ellida No, I don't think they live outside. This was bought as a house plant. Let me know next time you're back here and we could meet up if you like. My other half, @shepherdman is also a 365er.
Fax
Great shot!