The weird biology of the Venus flytrap

[ficuswhisperer]

My regularly scheduled recycling of bits regarding Venus flytraps:

Will a Venus Flytrap eat jelly beans instead of flies?

They are hard to take care of (as @PartTimeZombie noted) and very easy to kill. They need a lot of light and a lot of moisture; their natural habitat is swampy and low-nutrient areas. They evolved to eat insects precisely to compensate nutrient-bare soil they inhabit in the wild, but too much nutrients can kill them just as easily as not enough. They also require special care to survive through colder winter months. That being said, if properly cared for they can live for decades. One really ea…