The Fascinating Doinaea Muscipula Quiz

Answer: 630

There are roughly 630 known species of carnivorous plants and each one is unique. There are sundews, pitcher plants and bladderworts, but the most well known is the Venus flytrap.

Answer: vulnerable

Just like animals, plants have a conservation status. The Venus flytrap is listed as 'vulnerable'. In some North Carolina counties, it's now considered a crime to steal naturally-growing Venus flytraps.

Answer: black

The seeds of the Venus flytrap are small, black and shiny. They take between four and five years to grow into mature plants.

Answer: True

When it comes to food, carnivorous plants are very selective. This is due to prey availability as well as the type of trapping mechanism the plant uses. Venus flytraps are restricted to spiders and crawling insects such as beetles, ants and grasshoppers. Given the opportunity, however, they will sometimes live up to their name, catching flying insects such as bees, wasps and, of course, flies.

Answer: because the soil it lives in has very little nutrients

The Venus flytrap is native to the U.S. states of North and South Carolina. It lives in boggy areas where the nutrient level of the soil is very low. Therefore, it feeds on insects and spiders to get the nutrients it needs.

Answer: True

Venus flytraps usually use nectar to attract their prey, however, during bleak weather, they've been known to emit a fluorescent blue glow.

Answer: spines

As the trap closes on a captured spider or insect, the spines on the edges come together, creating a barrier to prevent the prey escaping, although sometimes prey will escape if it's small enough to fit through the gaps between the spines.

Answer: snap trap

The "snap trap" is a simple yet effective mechanism. The trap consists of two lobe-shaped leaves. On the inside are six trigger hairs, three on each leaf. If an insect lands on the trap and touches two trigger hairs in less than twenty seconds, the leaves snap shut. The plant then spends up to a week digesting the captured insect before the trap re-opens, ready to catch its next victim.

Answer: waterwheels and sundews

Sundews, pitcher plants, waterwheels and bladderworts are all carnivorous with each one using a different trapping mechanism. The waterwheel uses the "snap trap", pitcher plants use "pitfall traps", sundews use "flypaper traps" and bladderworts use "bladder traps".

Liverworts, Kafir lillies, knotweeds and hornworts are not considered carnivorous.

Answer: True

The Venus flytrap is both a carnivorous plant and a flowering plant. However, like all flowering plants, it relies on insects for pollination. So how do insects pollinate the flowers without becoming the flytrap's lunch? It's simple. The flowers grow on long stalks, high above the traps.