Q. I heard that it is illegal to remove a small carnivorous plant called Venus flytrap from the wild. Are they protected by state wildlife agencies or the Endangered Species Act?
A. Last year, the USFWS “determined that this species does not meet the definition of an endangered or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.” However, government agencies have identified a number of human-related threats, chief among them habitat loss due to conversion to agriculture, afforestation, and development. Suppression of natural fires leads to encroachment of shrubs and trees. Digging trenches, maintaining roads and draining wetlands are further assaults on the factory's fragile environment. Poaching is also a serious problem. Despite the lack of federal regulations, both Carolinas have some protections in place for this small plant. According to the USFWS, “Poaching of Venus flytraps became a felony in North Carolina in 2014.” In South Carolina, it is “illegal” to collect or destroy them on public land. Keith Bradley of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources points out that on private land, plants can only be harvested with the owner's consent.
Venus Venus flytrap, named after the Roman goddess of beauty, is native to the United States. They occur naturally only in the longleaf pine savannahs of North and South Carolina, on flat terrain with moist soils most of the year. Charles Darwin said of the Venus flytrap in Insectivorous Plants (1875): [this plant] It's one of the most amazing things in the world. ” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes it as “one of the most widely recognized carnivorous plant species on Earth.”
All over the world, a variety of plants capture and consume insects and other small creatures. Most carnivorous plants live in wetlands where the soil is nutrient poor and highly acidic. Catching and digesting unwary insects is one way plants living in rich soil habitats compensate for the lack of essential vitamins and minerals they absorb through their roots. But Venus flytraps do not catch insects passively like pitcher plants or slowly with sticky tentacles like spinach plants. These little killers waste no time. The modified leaves form her two halves of a trap resembling a widely split butterbean. Sharp spines surround the leaves. The scent from the nectary glands of open leaves attracts flies, beetles, and other animals. When a bug lands on a leaf and hits one of the hair triggers, the two halves of the trap slam shut. As Darwin said, “When the leaves close, they interlock like the teeth of a mousetrap.” The small plant then secretes digestive juices and begins to absorb the prey, but this process can take up to several hours. It may take several days.
In addition to its unusual and interesting natural history, Venus flytraps also convey an encouraging message to future scientists. That means there's still a lot to learn about even the most obvious flora and fauna. In 2018, E. Youngstead, C.E. Sorenson (North Carolina State University) and colleagues published a scientific paper in the American Naturalist titled “Vulture Traps Rarely Capture Pollinators.” Their key point is that there is “little overlap” between the many types of invertebrates that fall prey to the snappy jaws of these cunning little plants and the types of insects that visit their flowers and provide pollination. That was it. Equally noteworthy to me was this statement: “Provides the first report on a flower-visiting community of Venus flytrap.”
Let's think about it. Darwin and other scientists studied Venus flytraps for more than a century without determining which insect pollinated them. The discovery that carnivorous plants don't normally trap animals that rely on cross-pollination shows how complex the natural system is. For scientists, there are many opportunities every day to make new and exciting discoveries about the plants and animals with which we share the world.
