Carnivorous plants usually grow in boggy, nutrient-poor soils, so they make up for missing nutrients by trapping and digesting insects. Each has its own clever trap: the snapping leaves of the Venus flytrap, the sticky tentacles of sundews, the slippery pitfalls of pitcher plants and the tiny underwater suction traps of bladderworts.
Begin with our overview about carnivorous plants, then meet individual species like the Venus flytrap, butterworts, Nepenthes and several kinds of pitcher plants from North America, California and Western Australia. If you want to grow your own, our guide to caring for carnivorous plants covers water, light and soil.
Caring for carnivorous plants is a little bit different from caring for a fern or a potted rose. This is because in order for the plant to live it needs to feel like it is still in its natural habitat. You cannot use regular potting soil when planting or repotting carnivorous plants or you will kill them….
Carnivorous plants are meat-eating plants that need the nutrients from their natural growing conditions, like air, water, and soil, to live as well as the nutrients from the insects and other bugs and arachnids that they consume. Carnivorous plants grow naturally in swampy areas around the world where the water that is constantly running over…