Most Popular Carnivorous Plants Found In North America
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Carnivorous plants are known to grow in regions where the soil is poor and lacks nutrients, like in rocky areas and bogs. Therefore, the plants supplement their nutrients by capturing and digesting small animals, mainly insects. We also have written another good piece of article, Fantastic Carnivorous Plants and Where to Find Them, which you may want to explore further to learn more about the Carnivorous plants and its said species.
Moreover, the 10 most popular carnivorous plants found in North America have been identified and listed here.
Venus Flytrap (Dionaea Muscipula)
To other carnivorous plants, the Venus flytrap is what Tyrannosaurus rex is to dinosaurs. It may not be the biggest but is, without a doubt, the most popular species of the carnivorous plants. Despite what has been shown in films, the Venus flytrap is reasonably small, about ½ feet in length. Also, the plant’s sticky traps are only approximately an inch long. Venus flytraps are native to the South Carolina and North Carolina subtropical wetlands. One fascinating fact about this plant is its way of making sure it only traps insects and remains unresponsive to false alarms. The leaves of the Venus flytrap will only snap shut if a bug touches two different interior hairs within 20 seconds. That helps eliminate false alarms from other objects such as pieces of falling debris.
The Venus flytrap has only 4-7 leaves that grow from its short subterranean stem. The plant’s leaf blade is divided into a pair of terminal lobes and a long heart-shaped petiole that forms the trap. The edges of these lobes secrete mucilage, a sticky substance that traps the insect. The lobes snap shut when their sensory hairs are touched. As mentioned earlier, the plant is smart to the extent that it can differentiate between a non-living stimulus and a living stimulus.
Interesting Facts:
- The only place that Venus flytraps grow naturally in the entire world is South Carolina and North Carolina. The plant thrives in bog-like coastal regions with about 80% humidity. The plant requires nutrient-poor soil for it to grow correctly. Since they grow in soils that lack nutrients, eating insects and other small animals is the only way the plant can meet its nutritional needs. The life of this carnivorous plant is dependent on the nutrients they get from captured insects.
- Once a prey has been lured and captured, the leaves of the Venus flytrap secrets a liquid containing digestive enzymes. It is the enzymes that aid digestion and dissolve the insect. However, the plant has a slow digestive system that takes up to 10 days to digest the trapped insect before it can reopen. The plant spits out the insect’s exoskeleton. As a result, Venus flytraps have a limited lifespan, mainly because the trap does not open for about two weeks, and this prevents the plant from receiving more nutrients.
The name of these Carnivorous plants comes from the fact that it looks like a cobra snake that is just about to strike. The cobra lily is a rare plant only found in the cold-water bogs of Northern California and Oregon. Cobra lily is truly diabolical; it does not use the sweet-scented nectars to attract insects into the pitcher. The plant’s pitcher has many transparent false “exits” that exhaust the desperate prey as they try to find ways to escape. Naturalists are still trying to find the plant’s natural pollinator. For pollination to take place, it means some insects can gather the flower pollen grains and will not die.
Interesting Facts:
Cobra lilies have a pitcher like leaf that resembles a striking cobra. Also, it has purple-red appendages that are very similar to snakes set of fangs or forked tongue.
The cobra lily naturally grow in the United States, especially Oregon and California.
Drosera anglica
Drosera anglica, also known as the great sundew or the English sundew, is a carnivorous plant. The plant uses its tentacles to lure, capture, and digest insects. Insects are attracted to the sweet scent released by the glands and are captured upon landing on the plant.
Interesting Facts:
Unlike other carnivorous plants that only capture small insects, Drosera anglica can trap insects with larger wings, including dragonflies, damselflies, and even little butterflies.
The plant is native to 12 U.S states, including Alaska.
Pinguicula vulgaris
Pinguicula vulgaris is a common carnivorous butterwort plant that belongs to the lentibularianceae bladderwort family. The plant thrives in damp environments like swamps and bogs.
Interesting Facts:
The plant is native to areas with cold winters. Also, they are native to the United States, Canada, Russia, and every country in Europe.
The plant grows to about 3 – 16 cm in height and eventually develops a white, occasionally purple flower that is about 15 mm.
American Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia)
Easy to grow and profoundly beautiful, the American pitcher might be the most predatory and underappreciated plant. The bizarre leaves can easily catch thousands of annoying insects such as wasps, flies, and ants. The flowers of the plant are unusual, brilliant and spectacular, which is a wonderful factor to the already beautiful breed of foliage plants.
There are 15 species of the American pitcher plant that can be found in the swamps of Florida, Texas wetlands, and bushes in Southern Canada. However, most species can only be found close to each other, mainly because they only grow in moist areas like spring, marshes, fens, bogs, riverbanks, lack edges, and swamps.
A delicious scent, sweet nectar, and beautiful color attract insects into the American pitcher’s pitfall trap. Drunk on the smell of the intoxicating nectar, a bug slowly slides down into a slippery tube. A lining of hair that points downwards within the pitcher makes sure that the insect cannot crawl out. Once at the bottom of the pitcher, a pool of enzymes and digestive acids are secreted to dissolve the victim’s body. The plant absorbs essential nutrients like phosphates and nitrates from their prey, which can be snails, slugs, beetles, bees, wasps, flies, and ants.
Interesting Facts:
The American pitcher plants blossom in spring and wither during winter. They usually grow in clumps, but can also spread out.
Its flowers thrive in early spring on the long stems to avoid trapping pollinators. The pods of the seeds turn brown and split to scatter the seeds.
Sarracenia alabamensis
Sarracenia alabamensis, also called the cane-brake pitcher plant, is a common carnivorous plant native to central Alabama. The plant uses a rolled leaf to capture unsuspecting insects. The pitcher secretes digestive enzymes to dissolve the captured insect. Initially, botanists thought that the plant’s hollow pitcher was just a hiding place for the insects. However, a botanist studied and observed that insects attracted by the plant’s nectar always died. There are few instances where giant insects like wasps have been found to escape from the plant’s pitcher, by chewing the walls of the tube.
Interesting Facts:
The plant is native to North America (central Alabama, Florida, eastern Mississippi, and southwestern Alabama.
The plant’s leaf forms a lid like structure to prevent rainwater from entering the pitcher and destroying the digestive enzymes within.
Pinguicula acuminata
Pinguicula acuminata is a carnivorous plant native to the Mexican state of Hidalgo. The plant is known for producing strikingly beautiful flowers. The rosette created during winter is buried underground. The leaves are covered with sessile and stalked mucilaginous digestive glands that serve to capture and dissolve prey. The plant then absorbs the nutrients to supplement its nitrate-deficiency.
Interesting Facts:
Pinguicula acuminata can only be found in Hidalgo, Mexico.
The plant was initially discovered in 1839 by George Bentham.
Pinguicula moranensis
Pinguicula moranensis is a perennial carnivorous plant native to Guatemala and Mexico. A common butterwort species, the plant forms summer rosettes of succulent leaves. The flat leaves are covered in the mucilaginous glands, which lure and digest prey. Nutrients absorbed from the victims are used to supplement the nutrient-poor environment in which the Pinguicula moranensis grows.
Interesting Facts:
The plant forms a non-carnivorous rosette during winter to conserve energy when moisture and energy supplies are low.
Pinguicula moranensis is the most commonly grown Pinguicula mainly because of its large size, beautiful flowers, and how easy it is cultivated.
Utricularia inflata
Also known as the large floating bladderwort, inflated bladderwort, or swollen bladderwort, Utricularia inflata is a large, widespread aquatic carnivorous plant, which belongs to the Utricularia genus. The plant is native to the southeastern coastal regions of the United States. The plant does not have any true leaves or roots.
Interesting Facts:
Originally, the plant was named in 1788 by Thomas Walter.
The plant is mainly cultivated by insectivorous plant enthusiasts primarily because it does not have dormancy and because of its swift growth.
Pinguicula gypsicola
Pinguicula gypsicola is a carnivorous plant that is native to San Luis Potos, Mexico. Its leaves are covered in digestive glands that serve to capture and dissolve insects. The plant absorbs the resulting nutrients.
Interesting Fact:
These carnivorous species have bright green to reddish leaves that can grow to about 6.5 cm in length.
