🌱☠️Venus flytraps: Nature's most vulnerable assassins

Toilet paper, dish soap, some toothpaste. What else is on the shopping list? Oh, right, a carnivorous plant. In recent years, Venus flytraps have become so popular they’re commonly stocked at chain stores like Walmart and Lowes. They’re cheap, thrive indoors, and watching them demolish [anything that enters their maw]( is arguably more entertaining than Netflix. Alas, our love for flytraps is not enough to save them. In fact, it’s actually what sent them spiraling towards extinction. In nature, they’re only found within 90 miles of Wilmington, North Carolina—and nowhere else on Earth—and as they hit the market the tiny population shrunk. Today, only [35,000 flytraps remain in the wild](. And while poaching has since subsided (the vast majority are grown in greenhouses, including those sold to big box stores) other threats like [habitat loss and fire suppression are on the rise](. One glimmer of hope for the flytrap remains: The U.S. government is reviewing [a petition]( to list flytraps as endangered, which would grant them federal protection. Petitioners say don’t hold your breath, as these processes can take years. So let’s instead hold a magnifying glass—to this marvelous meat-eating plant. (Graphic images below!) 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Venus flytraps September 10, 2018 Snatchers get snatched --------------------------------------------------------------- Toilet paper, dish soap, some toothpaste. What else is on the shopping list? Oh, right, a carnivorous plant. In recent years, Venus flytraps have become so popular they’re commonly stocked at chain stores like Walmart and Lowes. They’re cheap, thrive indoors, and watching them demolish [anything that enters their maw]( is arguably more entertaining than Netflix. Alas, our love for flytraps is not enough to save them. In fact, it’s actually what sent them spiraling towards extinction. In nature, they’re only found within 90 miles of Wilmington, North Carolina—and nowhere else on Earth—and as they hit the market the tiny population shrunk. Today, only [35,000 flytraps remain in the wild](. And while poaching has since subsided (the vast majority are grown in greenhouses, including those sold to big box stores) other threats like [habitat loss and fire suppression are on the rise](. One glimmer of hope for the flytrap remains: The U.S. government is reviewing [a petition]( to list flytraps as endangered, which would grant them federal protection. Petitioners say don’t hold your breath, as these processes can take years. So let’s instead hold a magnifying glass—to this marvelous meat-eating plant. (Graphic images below!) 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( By the digits [5 million:]( Estimated size of the original wild Venus flytrap population [65,000:]( Number of plants a single company collected in 1981 [35,000:]( Estimated number of Venus fly traps in 2018, according to the North Carolina chapter of the Nature Conservancy [70%:]( Historic flytrap habitat loss since the 1970s [970:]( Number of flytraps Paul Simmons Jr. and three accomplices illegally poached from North Carolina in 2015, one month after harvesting became a felony in several counties. Simmons was sentenced to 17 months in prison. [20:]( a Venus flytrap can purportedly live [$0.25:]( Street value of wild-grown Venus flytraps in North and South Carolina, which are sold to local retailers and flea markets [$8:]( Cost of a potted Venus flytrap at Walmart.com [.04:]( Seconds it takes for a trap to close. When the plant is triggered, water rushes into its leaves, which quickly snap from convex to concave (in the same way that a contact lens flips inside out). [5%:]( Proportion of the flytrap’s diet made up of flies. Most of the bugs they bag are ants, spiders, beetles, and grasshoppers. [5:]( of Venus Flytrap, Thailand’s first transgender pop group Giphy Explain it to me like I’m 5! How snap traps bag bugs --------------------------------------------------------------- Here’s the scenario: A fly lands on an open Venus flytrap, which is dotted with tiny hairs. When the fly knocks into one of them, nothing appears to happen, but behind the scenes, the plant starts to count. If the fly bumps into another hair within 20 seconds—signalling to the plant that it has live prey at hand, rather than a stick or other indigestible debris—the plant snaps shut, closing the fly inside. A struggle ensues. As the fly tries to break free, it rustles even more hairs, prompting the plant to release digestive enzymes; the more hairs the fly triggers, the more juices the plant releases. Several hours pass before the trap becomes completely airtight, and if the fly is still alive, it suffocates. Then the trap [basically becomes a stomach]( The fluid inside turns into acid and fills with meat-eating enzymes. Over the course of a week or so, the plant will continue digesting its prey, converting the guts into nutrients, which the plant uses to supplement its diet of sunlight. When there’s nothing left to eat, the trap flings open and waits for its next guest. Fans of [Little Shop of Horrors]( may be asking: would a flytrap eat me? Of course! Barry Rice, an astrobiologist and serious carnivorous plant hobbyist, fed one a little piece of himself obtained via a “really vile” case of athlete’s foot, and to Rice’s surprise it [managed to devour]( the crusty skin. Quotable “They take the place of pets, but they’re not as messy, and if they die, they don’t smell bad” —[Ivan Snyder, a longtime flytrap grower, to the Los Angeles Times]( “People think that they’re huge plants that can eat people. They can eat your mother-in-law—if you’ve got a good blender. —[Cindy Evans, who runs Fly-Trap Farm in North Carolina, on the podcast Criminal]( “This plant … is one of the most wonderful in the world” —[Charles Darwin, in his 1898 edition of Insectivorous Plants]( Giphy Watch this! “Feed me, Seymour.” The 1980s off-Broadway musical-turned-Frank-Oz-film Little Shop of Horrors helped cement the Venus flytrap’s place in our psyches. Green thumb Caring for your needy flytrap --------------------------------------------------------------- If you’ve ever tried to keep a flytrap alive, you know it’s like caring for an orchid, but way worse—no matter how bug-infested your apartment might be. ☀️Lots of light: Flytraps should be basking in the sun all day—a bright windowsill should do the trick—except during hot summer months when they need a hint of shade. 💧Only the purest water: No, a Brita won’t cut it. Water your plant with distilled or rain water (flytraps evolved in acidic habitats, absent of the alkaline minerals that come out of the sink). And always keep the soil damp. 🌡Seasonal temps: Snap traps are usually happy with warm, indoor temperatures, but in the winter they go “dormant,” and require cool weather. Put your plant on the porch if it won’t drop below freezing outside; if it will, find a cool spot in your house … or pop it in the refrigerator! Midnight snacking at your own risk. 🌸 Flower-free: It may be a miracle when other indoor plants flower, but not the flytrap. Flowering is energetically costly (and unnecessary), so once a stock starts to emerge from the plant’s center, give it the scissors. 🍂Keep it pretty: Just as you clip the flower, you should also prune any dead or dying leaves, which easily become infected with fungus that can spread. Look out for traps that are dry, wilted and colored brown or black. 🐜 Food that flies—or crawls: Though flytraps do love to eat flies, they’re also happy to suck the juices out of mosquitos, spiders, and other small bugs, as long as they’re no more than a third of the trap’s size. They can catch insects themselves, but you can also assist—just be sure to tickle the triggers if the victim is already dead. Reuters/David Loh Fun fact! A bent for bug-eating—which the flytrap shares with some 600 other carnivorous plants—[evolved where soil quality is poor](. Much like vitamin supplements, insects provide the plants with key nutrients like nitrogen that most vegetarian species get through their roots. Because science Knowing friend from food --------------------------------------------------------------- Venus flytraps have an unusual existential dilemma: they need to be pollinated, but, well, they also eat pollinators. How do they get by? A team of researchers from North Carolina State University watched (and dug through the plants’ half-digested meals) for a recent study, and it’s less of a problem than you might think. “The plants most often devoured things like spiders and ants, despite winged-insects like bees and beetles being frequent visitors,” [writes]( Jessica Boddy in Popular Science. “In fact, 87 percent of flower-visitors could fly, compared to only 20 percent of prey.” It may seem so tricky because most of us don’t get to see a blossoming Venus flytrap in the wild. Their flowers can rise nearly a foot above the traps to attract fliers, and creepy crawly things are more likely to get eaten up down below, but the scientists are also exploring whether colors or scents help too. Reuters/Luisa Gonzalez Pop quiz What is the translation of the flytrap’s Latin species name, muscipula? Monster king MousetrapCarnivoreThe Devil’s arm Correct. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Reuters/Luisa Gonzalez Extinction alert Before it’s too late --------------------------------------------------------------- The Venus flytrap isn’t without fierce allies. Twice now, botanists have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to classify the plant as endangered. Although the first request, filed in 1993, was rejected for a lack of evidence, botanists are hopeful that the new petition, submitted in 2016, will result in a listing. “Since then we think we’ve filled in the picture more,” Don Waller, one of the petitioners, told [EcoWatch](. “We’re aware of how quickly the population has disappeared at several locations, and many of these smaller populations are not viable.” Late December, the petition [cleared the first hurdle]( 90-day preliminary review, which concluded that protection “may be warranted”—and now the agency is carrying out a more in-depth review that could take up to five years. If the flytrap is listed, USFWS will be “required to designate for the species federally protected habitat” and “develop a recovery plan … to act as a road map to recuperation,” [according to the Center for Biological Diversity](. Listen to this! The flytrap felons --------------------------------------------------------------- In September 2013, $65,000 worth of flytraps and pitcher plants were stolen from a nursery in North Carolina. It was the grandest heist of carnivorous plants, ever—but it wasn’t the only one. On the podcast [Criminal]( producer Eric Mennel reports on the “Venus flytrap crime ring,” replete with “lackies, middle men, and a mysterious end buyer who’s perpetuating the market.” [Click here to listen]( Giphy Poll Would you buy a Venus flytrap? [Click here to vote]( Ordering one online right now!Just finished feeding my collection actually.Unfortunately I kill every plant I touch—even the ones that would kill me.Sticking with succulents. 💬let's talk! 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