Venus Fly Trap Seeds

Venus fly trap seeds

The Venus Flytrap is the most spectacular of the carnivorous plants. Despite its exotic appearance, which suggests that it should be native to some remote jungle wilderness, it is native to a small area of the eastern United States. Its Latin name Dionaea muscipula partly commemorates Venus, the goddess of beauty.

It is native only to the grassy wetlands within a 100-mile radius of Cape Fear, North Carolina. The climate is warm and humid in summer, and chilly to frosty in the winter with occasional snowfall. While once abundant, the flytrap is now severely threatened due to the drainage and destruction of wet savannas for agriculture, home sites, and shopping centers.

Less than 5% of the plants survive! Venus Flytraps are temperate plants and in autumn, the plant gets smaller as it prepares for winter dormancy. Dormancy lasts from October to February and the plant will stop actively growing and die back to the roots. It will start to grow vigorously in the spring. Hardy in zones 7-10.

Growing a Venus flytrap from seed:

1. Put a mixture of 1 part peat and 2 parts sand or perlite in a pot.
2. Sow the seeds on the surface of the soil.
3. Put a water tray under the pot and keep it filled with water. Seeds germinate at temperatures of 15-25°C and 100% relative humidity within several weeks.

Germination is rather prolonged. The young seedlings can be transplanted once they have at least 3 true leaves.