How Many Times Can a Venus Flytrap Close
How many times can a Venus Flytrap’s trap close?
The average trap of the Venus flytrap can only close, digest, and reopen roughly Six to Ten times before it dies and is replaced by a new trap. That is why it is important not to trigger the trap accidentally or attempt to feed it too large of an insect (no bigger that 1/3 the trap size).
That is the quick answer but feel free to continue reading below if you need more details.
Venus flytraps, or Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant that eats small insects and spiders as its prey. It can eat other bugs as well, as long as they are not too large in size. However, when watching a Venus flytrap open and close its trap, you may wonder, how often can it do that, and how does it know when to close or open again?
How Often Can a Venus Flytrap Open and Close its Trap?
When this plant closes its “mouth,” it starts the digestion process of whatever it is eating. However, since these plants can only close six to ten times throughout its entire lifetime, it knows when to digest prey and when you are just messing with it to get its trap to close. If you put a stick in its mouth, it will close; however, it will not start digesting the stick. This is because the plant actually decides what it is going to eat and what it does not need to eat because of continuous stimulation of its trigger hairs.
Here’s a recommended read about How to Care and Grow Venus Flytraps or else, How To Grow Venus Flуtrарѕ From Seeds, if ever you’re planning to grow one of your own, but if you already have one and would like to learn from us then keep reading.
The Venus flytrap usually has about three to twelve traps, and they can even have more than twelve. When opened, they are held at a 45 to 60-degree angle.
The leaves look bumpy due to its digestive glands being microscopic, and they each have around three small hairs inside of it. Each leaf half contains these in a triangle pattern and allows it to “feel” when it needs to be closed.
Here’s another one of our articles about Venus Flytraps: 10 Strange Facts About The Venus Flytrap
How Does a Venus Flytrap Know Whether to Open or Close?
It closes when disturbed
If you look inside your Venus flytrap’s trap, you will see very delicate hairs inside of its flat leaves. For the plant to know when to close, it needs to have these hairs disturbed twice within a 20-second timeframe, or else it will most likely just ignore it.
If the Venus flytrap is in very warm conditions, it may even take one disruption of its hairs to close its trap, regardless of what is inside its “mouth.”
If the period of time between the plant “feeling” something inside of it with its hairs is longer, then the trap will respond much more slowly compared to it feeling something moving within twenty seconds.
When it is consistently multiple times within forty seconds, the trap is more likely to close quickly compared to longer, less consistent touches of its hairs.
This is because when a spider or small insect is crawling on its leaves, the critter will come in contact with a few of the hairs in its trap. This will trigger the trap to close and start the digestion process. However, once the trap closes, the digestion process does not start right away. It takes a few more times for the bug to come in contact with those hairs for the Venus flytrap to start its digestion process.
It opens after successful digestion
If the plant has live prey in its trap, the bug will likely struggle to escape, which ends up starting the Venus flytrap’s digestion process. The trap will fully seal the spider or small insect in its “mouth” and start to secrete the plant’s digestive juices.
These plants may close their traps if you place a rock or stick in its mouth; however, the plant knows that it is not prey, so it will not try to digest it.
Since their traps can only close so many times within its lifetime, the Venus flytrap will not be likely to close if it feels a drop of rain or a sudden breeze gently touching its trap hairs.
This allows the plant to reduce how much energy it uses for closing its trap since it is not food that is touching it; the plant will not close and waste this energy.
Once a trap closes, it can reopen within 24 hours, only if it has missed its prey or has non-organic substances in its trap. However, to digest its prey, it can take anywhere from three to five days to fully complete the process, leaving the trap closed for as long as it takes to finish.
Where Did All The Venus Flytraps Go
These Venus flytraps are a rare species nowadays because the forests that these plants tend to grow in are susceptible to forest fires. They grow in acidic, sandy, wet soils in the long-leaf pine forests. These forests tend to have fire problems arise due to the tough living conditions the plants all face.
These fires act as fertilizer for the Venus flytraps, which in turn reduces its habitat surrounding them. Only a small part of their original homes are intact. Most of the Venus flytraps’ habitats have been reduced and are no longer able to house these carnivorous plants.
Only two states in the United States of America are considered home for the Venus flytrap, North and South Carolina. For these plants to thrive, they need to have doses of fire, along with getting their habitats preserved. For example, the remainder of the long-leaf pine forests, along with its wetlands, need to be protected.
If you want to buy a Venus flytrap, experts suggest betting those that are only grown in greenhouses, because this protects them and allows them to be preserved better.
You might also find it interesting to read about our article in regards to The Definitive Carnivorous Plant Shopping List if you want to explore other types of Carnivorous plants.
