Dionaea Muscipula, or more commonly known as the Venus Flytrap, is an insect eating plant, and one of the first that has been found. Many people know of it but may think of it as scary or worrying, when in reality it’s great for many people. A lot of people hate bugs, but of course venus flytraps help with that, as they attract its prey with a pleasing fruity scent, and when an insect lands on a leaf of the plant, it stimulates the highly sensitive hairs that line the leaf. After a bit, when the pressure is enough to bend those hairs, the plant will snap its leaves shut and trap the insect.

The venus flytrap was the first insect eating plant to be discovered, and it was first found by a botanist named Arthur Dobbs, who was also the 9th mayor of North Carolina. Mr. Dobbs had just found the plant in 1759, considering he was known to just ‘stumble upon it’, he most likely found it after looking for other plants. The venus flytrap also symbolizes ‘persistence’ because if the plant fails to trap a passing fly, then it stays shut for a little while, in a way sulking like a little child who doesn’t get their way, but it then ‘resets’ itself and tries to get another fly that may come near, and doesn’t give up.

It’s understandable that people would be scared of the plant, but it isn’t harmful to humans. In fact, if you do touch one and it snaps shut, it will not hurt you. Venus flytraps are insect eating plants, but they can’t really eat anything bigger than a house fly, so they mainly only eat mosquitos, flies, and other insects around that size. 

In reality, venus flytraps are really great plants, they eat really annoying insects, and there’s nothing to be scared of since it can’t actually hurt a human. Venus flytraps are plants that many people should really appreciate more.