The Original Little Shop of Horrors
The mighty Venus flytrap rose to prominence in popular culture in the 1960’s film, The Little Shop of Horrors. Directed by Roger Corman and written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate young florist’s assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh.
Although the film didn’t get very much attention when it was originally released, it has since grown to cult classic status, thanks to its low budget and original style of humor. The film inspired a 1982 stage musical, and a 1986 feature film.
How did the Venus flytrap get its name?
I’ve always been told that the Venus flytrap got it’s name due to the shear white beauty of it’s flowers, just like the goddess/planet Venus. The flytrap part is obviously from it’s twisted fly eating ways.
However
Barry Rice has an interesting article on the real reason for the name Venus flytrap.
Barry claims that the name is due to the “dirty minds of the kooky naturalists and nurserymen” and that “they saw in its amazing behavior and attractive form” … “something that reminded them of female genitalia of their own species.”
Jeepers, that’s a heck of a statement. But Barry can backup his claims …
Visit his website to learn more about where the name “Venus Flytrap” came from … Barry’s website.
The painting is “The Birth of Venus” by Sandro Botticelli.
Little Shop of Horrors Remake
The Little Shop of Horrors film was re-release in 1986. The film was directed by Frank Oz (puppeteer for Yoda and Miss Piggy). The movie was shot in England with a budget of US$30 million. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for “Mean Green Mother from Outer Space”. It caused a small controversy because it was the first Oscar-nominated song to contain profanity and thus had to be censored for the show.
Spoiler
A nerdy young florist’s assistant named Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis) discovers a mysterious new plant that came from outer space during a solar eclipse. He names the plant “Audrey II,” because he secretly has a crush on his co-worker Audrey (Ellen Greene). The plant improves business at Mister Mushnik’s (Vincent Gardenia) failing skid-row flower shop, and Seymour becomes a local celebrity. However, late at night when the shop is deserted, Seymour accidentally cuts open his fingers and discovers that the only way to make Audrey II grow is to feed it with human blood.
Venus Flytrap Cultivars
The International Carnivorous Plant Society (ICPS) maintains a list of registered cultivar names for Dionaea muscipula Soland. ex Ellis (aka Venus flytrap).
From Wikipedia: A cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because it has desirable characteristics (decorative or useful) that distinguish it from otherwise similar plants of the same species. When propagated it retains those characteristics.
Here is a complete list of all of the current Venus flytrap (Dionaea) cultivars registered with the ICPS.This list does not include those cultivars which are not fully registered with the ICPS such as Dionaea ‘Clumping Cultivar’, Dionaea ‘ Big Mouth ‘, Dionaea ‘Kinchyaku’, Dionaea ‘Red Rosetted’, Dionaea ‘Royal Red’ etc.
Dionaea ‘Akai Ryu’ – aka Dionaea ‘Red Dragon’
The most common red form of the Venus flytrap. Is known for it’s intense dark red colouration.
Dionea ‘B52′
Currently considered to the largest Venus flytrap cultivar. Optimal growing conditions are required for these plants to reach their full size. Poor growing conditions will result in a plant the same size as any other.
Dionaea Clayton’s Red Sunset
Red with long skinny petioles (particularly during winter) whereas other red cultivars have quite wide petioles. They often lose all of their leaves during dormancy.
Dionaea ‘Cupped Trap’
The traps are joined at one end, creating a cup shape. Despite their warped appearance the traps still function correctly.
Dionaea ‘Dentate Traps’
The spines of each trap are short and triangular like a sharks tooth instead of long and skinny as in ‘regular’ varieties. The spines of small/younger plants do not shows these properties as prominently.
Dionaea ‘Fused Tooth’
The spines of the traps are bent out of shape, fused together by webbing. The traps usually look normal during spring however.1
Dionaea ‘Green Dragon’
This is believed to be a mutation of the ‘Red Dragon’ cultivar, but the edges of the traps do not turn red, even when exposed to intense sunlight.
Dionaea ‘Holland Red’
A red variety which is often green when growing in insufficient light.
Dionaea ‘Jaws’
The traps are very big and have short, pointy spines.
Dionaea ‘Justina Davis’
The traps are always green, even when exposed to intense sunlight.
Dionaea ‘Louchapates’
The spines of the traps are split and found at the ends of the trap lobes.
Dionaea ‘Petite Dragon’
Has the same deep red colour as Dionaea ‘Akai Ryu’ but is not as large and has bifurcated flower stalks.
Dionaea ‘Red Burgundy’
A red variety which is known for having rapid growth characteristics (for a red variety).
Dionaea ‘Red Piranha’
Has short, triangular spines like Dionaea ‘Dentate Traps’ but the intense dark red colouration of Dionaea ‘Red Dragon’.
Dionaea ‘Sawtooth’
Similar to Dionaea ‘Dentate Traps’ but with trap spines which are modified into short, sawtoothed edges.
Dionaea ‘Wacky Traps’
The leaves are incompletely developed. This is an extremely slow grower that also has strangely distorted flowers. Known in some circles as “Bart Simpson”, but this name has not been established and might even violate some trademark laws.
Cultivar Groups
From Wikipedia: Under the botanical nomenclature of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP), a cultivar group is any gathering of cultivars designated by common traits.
Dionaea Dentate Traps Cultivar Group
This cultivar group contains all plants with short, triangular shaped spines.2
How do the Venus Flytraps move so fast?
If you have read our “How do the traps move” article you will already know that the movement of a Venus flytrap is poorly understood but is likely related to the flow of ions inside the plants leaves.
However, this only explains the initial motion of the trap. The aggressive fly trapping strength is gained from far simpler means … the secret to the Venus flytraps speed and strength does not rely in muscles or flows of ions, but the geometry of the traps.
Imagine a tennis ball which has been chopped in half and inverted. The tennis ball is quite stable in it’s inverted state, however if you bend the ball even slightly back towards it’s usual state, it will snap back into place very quickly. This is similar to the process occuring in a Venus flytrap. The traps are effectively in a constant state of inversion just like the tennis ball, when the trap is triggered, the plant pushes it’s lobes inwards triggering the snap and consequent consumption of it’s tasty prey.
Venus Flytrap Taxonomy
There is only one genus of Venus flytrap … Dionaea muscipula Soland. ex Ellis. However there are many different varieties of this one species.
Most cultivar species are distinguished by the colour of their traps, their trap shape and the size of their traps. Traps with strange shapes such as short or triangular shaped spines, deep red colours and abnormally large traps are often given their own names.
For detailed information on the taxonomy of carnivorous plants I recommend checking out Barry Rice’s carnivorous plants taxonomy page.
Arghh, my Flytrap is dying! What am I doing wrong?
Well, that could be one of many things.
The most likely answer however, is inadequate lighting. Venus fltraps require huge amounts of light and if your plant isn’t getting it then it will likely die. Full, bright sun all day long is the best solution to keep Venus flytraps healthy. With good lighting they can survive without being fed, minimal water, poor’ish soil conditions and lots of other nasty problems which afflict them. But if you keep your plant inside or live somewhere which is regularly overcast then you will likely have trouble keeping your plant healthy.
Remember that just because a few of your traps have turned black that doesn’t mean your plant is dying! Those traps will probably grow back nice and healthy in a few weeks anway.
Also, if you don’t know about winter dormancy, then go visit the winter dormancy post.
Why Venus Flytraps Eat Insects?
Plants generally get their nutrients from the air and nutrients in the soil. Flytraps however are native to humid boggy areas in North and South Carolina where acidic soil lacking in vital nutrients are found. The plants evolved to cope with the low nutrient soil they live in by extracting their nutrience from bugs. Venus flytraps can survive without catching bugs, but will generally grow faster with them.
And anyhows, imagine living your life and never getting to eat anything but dirt. A few bugs would probably start to sound appetising after living a life of sucking your nutrients out of the garden!
Flytrap Double Traps
If you find that your plant has grown two traps on one leaf, don’t get too excited. Your plant is not special, it has just formed a simple trap twin. This is not common, but is nothing special. The reasons for the formation of these twin traps is not entirely clear and there have been no reliable reports of anyone being able to grow plants which do this any more than others. These freakish twinned traps are certainly interesting to look at though.
Some people have also reported the formation of triple traps, however this is extremely rare.
Flytrap Growing in poor conditions – Week 14
We’re at week 14 in our experiment into the effects of water quality on the growth of Venus flytraps. Our plants are looking good and have changed significantly since our last report.
Specimen A: low light, distilled water
The maximum trap size for specimen A, our distilled water fed plant, is now up to a whopping 35 mm, this is an 8 mm increase on the size when purchased. The strength of the leaf base of the traps seems to have improved, as they are now at approximately the same angle (30 deg. from vertical) that they were when new. There are now 17 traps, in comparison to the mere five present when the plant was purchased. So not only has the size of the traps increased, but their numbers have shot up too! This plant is coping very well in it’s dimly lit environment and the inside of it’s traps are looking a very nice red colour.
This plant has been manually fed one fly since the last report, it has not captured any prey on it’s own.
Specimen B: low light, tap water
Our low light tap water fed plant specimen B is also growing very strongly. The largest trap is now 37 mm across which is an 8 mm increase from the original 29 mm maximum at purchase which was still the largest sized trap after the six week mark. The traps are now back to the 30 deg. angle from vertical that it had when first purchased too (this indicates strong structure).
The plant now has a total of 17 traps in comparison to only 4 when purchased. The plant has captured two flies since the last report, one on it’s own and another was fed manually with tweezers.
So despite the constant feed of inferior tap water, this plant seems to be thriving! It’s traps are larger than Specimen A which was expected to grow stronger and faster than it’s tap water fed counterpart.
Specimen C: Control Plant, medium light, distilled water
Our control plant is the sickliest looking plant of our three test subjects. It is not looking healthy and has lost much of it’s red colouring from it’s traps. Another plant which is growing in exactly the same conditions is strong and healthy, but this particular specimen is suffering for some unknown reason.
As a control specimen this has been a failure. We will work to get this plant back on track, but it is slowly but steadily looking less healthy than the surrounding plants. The traps are drooping over the edge of the pot and after catching it’s last two flies, the traps died and turned black.