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Dionaea muscipula J.Ellis

Venus flytrap

Native records: 2 botanical areas

North Carolina, South Carolina

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Natural distribution

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NativeIntroducedUncertain

Distribution is shown as WGSRPD Level 3 areas. It does not imply the species occurs throughout an entire area.

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Distribution last verified:

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Photograph of Dionaea muscipula

A carnivorous perennial and the sole member of the monotypic genus Dionaea (Droseraceae). Its snap-trap leaves close in roughly half a second to capture insects, making it the most iconic active carnivorous plant. Native only to a narrow coastal strip of North and South Carolina, USA, and listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN.

Description

A small perennial herb that overwinters as a white subterranean rhizome and produces a rosette of leaves each spring. Leaves are seasonally dimorphic: traps (modified leaves with two terminal lobes edged with stiff marginal teeth) are produced through the growing season, while flattened, elongated petiole-leaves dominate in winter. Each trap lobe carries three pairs of trigger trichomes (six total); stimulation of any two within about 20 seconds causes the trap to shut via rapid turgor change, completing closure in approximately 0.5 second. A single trap can fire only three to four times before it photosynthesises as a normal leaf, and digestion of captured prey takes 5–12 days. Flowering scapes reach 20–30 cm and bear a few white five-petalled flowers. Field surveys estimate fewer than 30,000 wild plants, declining due to poaching, wetland drainage, and fire-suppression-driven succession.

Habitat

Restricted to low-elevation, nutrient-poor, acidic peat bogs and wet pine savannas (longleaf pine ecosystems, Carolina bays, and pocosins) within roughly 100 km of the coast in North Carolina (south of the city of Wilmington) and adjacent north-eastern South Carolina. Depends on frequent fire to suppress competing vegetation. Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (intra-national trade regulated), and included in CITES Appendix II.

Distribution areas

  • Jamaica

    • JamaicaIntroduced

  • United States of America

    • AlabamaIntroduced
    • CaliforniaIntroduced
    • FloridaIntroduced
    • New JerseyIntroduced
    • North CarolinaNative
    • PennsylvaniaIntroduced
    • South CarolinaNative
    • VirginiaIntroduced
    • WashingtonIntroduced

Climate of the native range

The Köppen climate classes found in the areas this plant is recorded as native to. It does not mean an entire area has that climate.

  • Cfa Temperate, no dry season, hot summer

The same climate occurs in 31 areas worldwide, 25 of which have no record of this plant. See them on the map

A matching climate does not mean the plant can grow there. Range limits are also set by things other than climate — dispersal history, soils, competition. Source: Beck et al. (2023), CC BY 4.0 (observed period 1991–2020).

Recorded medicinal uses

The cited source records medicinal use of this plant. It is not an assessment of efficacy or safety.

  • Dionaea muscipula is recorded as used medicinally.

    Source location: p.231, left column, line 8

    World Checklist of Useful Plant Species · Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) · CC BY 4.0 · source version: wcups-2020-62602715

    Open source

Other names

Venus flytrap、Venus fly trap、Venus's flytrap

Family
Droseraceae
Genus
Dionaea

Sources

  • World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), version 2026-06-04

    Jamaica · Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew · wcvp_distribution.csv

    Open source

  • World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), version 2026-06-04

    United States of America · Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew · wcvp_distribution.csv

    Open source

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