Q: Tell me about Venus flytraps!


Wild Dionaea


Cultivated Dionaea

A: You bought a carnivorous plant? Wonderful! But I have some stern advice for you. Unless you meet some crucial cultivation requirements to satisfy your Venus flytrap's needs, it will die. Its leaves will shrivel, blacken, and the plant will rot to its core. Another mark on your soul.

In this FAQ-section you can learn exactly how to avoid murdering your Venus flytrap, but as you learn, you may become horrified to learn all of its strange and exacting requirements. How will you ever do everything right?! (Treating it like a normal house plant will certainly kill it.)

It is not very easy to grow Venus flytraps, which is why they are not commonly grown well! But do not despair. Instead, read the FAQ thoroughly and learn what you must do.

Incidentally, as you read the FAQ, sometimes you will see that I refer to Venus flytraps by the Latin name, Dionaea muscipula. Consider that your first lesson about VFTs. The nickname "VFT" stands for "Venus flytrap". Consider that to be lesson #2.

After you see all the finicky requirements your new plant demands, you may feel annoyed at the store that sold the plant to you. If you feel you have been misled, complain to the store, and not to me. (You would be surprised how many people have sent me angry e-mail, as if I were the CEO of some vast international Venus flytrap merchandising conglomerate.)

Page citations: Rice, B.A. 2006a.