Why do Venus Flytraps die after eating three or four flies?

Answer 1

Venus Flytraps are carnivores. Carnivores eat meat. The Venus Flytrap is forced to eat flies as there is not enough nutrients in its boggy environment.

Venus Flytraps and other insectivorous plants usually grow in peat bogs or other locations that are very poor in nitrogen. The bug eating adaptation is a way for the plant to supplement its nitrogen intake.

It's not just flies. Venus fly traps will consume anything they can trap in their specialized leaves. The protein and nutrients found in insects and even small amphibians provides a boost for the plant which traditionally grows in soil of very poor quality.

Answer 2

The Venus fly trap has specialized leaves with many fine hairs. These leaves look and smell like food to flies; so, they land to investigate. When they do, they brush the fine hairs, letting the plant know that an insect is there. There is a fast change in turgor pressure in special cells at the hinge of the leaf, which causes the leaf to shut. The fly is then trapped. The plant then releases enzymes that will breakdown the fly. These breakdown products are absorbed into the plant and used for growth.

Answer 3

The Venus Fly Trap sweet-smelling sap to attractinsects and arachnids.

The Venus Fly Trap is only one of the many carnivorous plants. They have existed on this planet for thousands of years. There are more than 500 different kinds of these plants, with appetites ranging from insects and Spiders to small, one- or two-cell aquatic organisms. To be considered carnivorous, a plant must attract, capture, kill and digest insects or other animal life.

Carnivorous plants have to be able to:

• attract insects
• capture bugs
• discriminate between food and non-food
• digest their prey

All of these steps are accomplished through simple mechanical and chemical processes. Unlike us, plants don't have a brain or nervous system to coordinate their physiological functions and tell them that they are hungry so they should go buy a burger from the nearest fast food place. Plants also don't have complex muscles and tendons to grab food, chew it, swallow it and process it. The Venus Flytrap completes the entire process by way of a specialized set of leaves that is both mouth and stomach in one.

Most plants have some mechanism to attract animals and insects, regardless of whether or not they plan to feast on their guests. For example, non-carnivorous plants have evolved intense smells or syrupy saps to attract bees, butterflies and other insects; these bugs are then used by the plants to ferry the pollenneeded to fertilize neighboring plants of the same species. In the case of the Venus Flytrap, the leaves forming the trap secrete a sweet nectar that draws in insects searching for food.

When an insect lands or crawls on the trap, it is likely to run into one of six, short, stiff hairs on the trap's surface. These are called trigger hairs, and they serve as a primitive motion detector for the plant. If two of these hairs are brushed in close succession, or one hair is touched twice, the leaves close down upon the offending insect within half a second.

Even without a brain to analyze what it's eating, the Venus Flytrap still manages to differentiate between insects and non-edible debris that might fall into its trap. This step is also mediated by the six sensitivetrigger hairs. An insect caught inside the partially closed trap will continue to thrash about in an attempt to escape. It's guaranteed that at least one (if not all) of the trigger hairs will be tweaked by the insect's movement. This serves as the signal to close the trap entirely.

Inanimate objects like stones, twigs and leaves that fall into the trap, or objects that are placed there (what child can resist sticking the tip of their pencil into the trap to watch it close?), will not move around and fire the trigger hairs. If there is no further stimulation of the hair, the trap stays in its partially shut state until tension can be re-established in the leaves of the trap. This process takes about 12 hours, at which point the leaves spread apart again. The unwanted object either falls out as the leaves re-open or is blown out by the wind.

The selection process obviously isn't perfect; while the trap is out of commission, real food in the form of flies and spiders may be crawling all around the plant. Imagine if you had to sit with a chicken bone or peach pit in your mouth for 12 hours while the rest of your dinner sat on the table in front of you!

Answer 4

This is a test. Just wonderin how this thing works.

Answer 5

The Venus Flytrap in fact dies after eating around 7 flies (per trap) as it tires and loses energy just like we humans do when we get old.