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Venus Flytrap showing trigger hairs.jpg

The Venus flytrap: shows reaction to the second touch.

The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a carnivorous plant (a plant that eats small animals, such as insects). Carnivorous plants grow in soil that has little nitrogen. They get nitrogen from the insects they trap. This nitrogen is used to make intravenous food like proteins and fats.

The Venus flytrap is one of a very small group of plants that can snap shut very quickly. When an insect or spider crawls along the leaves and touches a hair, the trap closes only if a different hair is touched within twenty seconds of the first touch. The two-touch trigger means that little energy is wasted on things that are not food.

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