Around the world today, you’ll find at least 700 different kinds of carnivorous plants, ranging from pitcher plants that lure their victims into pools of digestive enzymes to adhesive-trap plants whose stalks secrete a natural glue, turning them into living flypaper.
The fossil record contains evidence of early predator plants dating as far back as 40 million years, although many such plants likely existed much earlier than that. As fascinating as these plants are, none have captured the human imagination in the way that the Venus flytrap has.
The Venus Flytrap
Known to science as Dionaea muscipula, the Venus flytrap is by far the most popular and well-known of predatory plants. Western botanists began writing about it in the 1700s, supposedly naming the flytrap after the goddess Venus because of the plant's beauty when it produces flowers (although there are other less genteel theories about the name).
