The Venus flytrap is one of the most popular carnivorous plant species that are grown as houseplants. Its appearance is like no other and it’s pretty easy to take care of. Even if you’re a complete beginner with plants you can successfully grow the Venus flytrap, but just how long Venus Flytraps live?
Venus fly traps can survive for up to 20 years in the wild if the conditions are perfect. One of the most important things for the longevity of Venus fly traps is regular fires occurring every few years, minimizing the local competition. At home, Venus fly traps can also survive for 20 years, or indefinitely if cloned.
If you’re interested in knowing how these plants can have an endless lifespan, learning about growing them at home, and much more, this article is just for you!
Why Venus Fly Traps Can Live Forever
Venus fly traps are perennial plants, and unlike annual plants that survive just for a single year, can survive for over two years. This carnivorous plant species grows from seeds in rosettes consisting of about 6 leaves, each of which has a trap at the end. While there’s the main stem from which stems the leaves, every leaf can be seen as an individual plant with its own roots that are connected to the rest.
Additionally, the Venus flytrap can clone itself, and raise new rosettes. As a result, the Venus fly trap can survive as long as there’s at least one leaf with healthy roots left. It also allows the plant to be cloned indefinitely, and there are some cultivars that are cloned from plants that were first propagated in the 1950s.
It also means that you can get an infinite supply of Venus fly traps just from a single seed, which is great if you’re planning on sharing this wonderful plant with your friends or family. You can also clone the plant for yourself to ensure that it keeps on living even if the primary rosette has died.
In essence, your Venus flytrap is going to live for as long as you’re properly taking care of it. If we’re talking strictly about the lifespan of a specific leaf, you can expect it to stay alive for at least a few years, but it’s not out of the ordinary to expect it to survive for a decade or even two.
How To Make Your Venus Flytrap Live Long
If you want your Venus flytrap to live as long as you’re looking after it, then you have to take proper care of it. Luckily, Venus fly traps are relatively easy to grow, even if you aren’t experienced with plants. Here are the main things you have to keep in mind when growing this species:
Soil Choice
Venus fly traps grow in bogs of North and South Carolina. Those wetlands are characterized by extreme moisture, nutrient deficiency, and acidity. Doesn’t sound like ideal growing conditions for a plant, right? That’s if we’re talking about most houseplants, but Venus fly traps are unique because they get all the necessary nutrients from catching prey.
That’s why you cannot plant it in your usual houseplant soil. Instead, you should buy peat moss, which is basically the same soil that they grow in the wild. If you want to increase the longevity of your plant, you can even mix it in a 50:50 ratio with perlite soil, which will improve water retention and drainage of peat moss.
Water
You can’t expect the Venus flytrap to require normal water that you use for watering other plants. It’s because usual water is what’s considered hard water, containing minerals that can do more harm than good for your Venus flytrap. You should only water it with soft water, which you can get from collecting rainwater, buying distilled water, or installing a water filtering system at home.
Only if you’re watering your Venus flytrap with soft water can you expect it to survive longer than a year or two. It’s also worth mentioning that you should always maintain the soil damp and never allow it to dry out. The natural habitat of this species is bogs, so you have to water it frequently.
Light
Venus fly traps need at least 12 hours of light every day, including 4 hours of direct sunlight at the very least. The more, the better. It can be achieved by keeping it on a window sill, but if you’re living in a Northern climate without much sunlight, it can be difficult to fulfill this requirement.
That’s where LED lights and terrariums come in. You can keep your Venus flytrap in a terrarium and use artificial lighting to substitute for direct sunlight., It will guarantee the plant growing as healthy as possible. If you’re not a fan of white LED lights, this species can grow just under blue and red light.
Feeding
If you’re growing your Venus flytrap outside, you shouldn’t worry about feeding it. There’s plenty of prey for it to catch and get all the necessary nutrients on its own, but additional food can propagate its bloom. Also, if you’re keeping it inside, there might be a lack of insects to prey on for the ideal growth.
This is when you can substitute your plant’s diet with live insects bought from any pet store, but most people aren’t that enthusiastic about buying and feeding them alive. If you’re one of such people, you can buy food supplements specifically created for Venus fly traps. They usually come in liquid form and contain all the necessary nutrients to ensure a long life span.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
(Q): What Are Popular Venus Flytrap Cultivars?
(A): The Venus flytrap is one of the most popular carnivorous plant species to grow at home, and it led to dozens of cultivars bred for unique characteristics. Some of the most famous cultivars include “Akai Ryu”, which has deep red traps, “DC XL”, which has the biggest traps growing up to 2 in (5.08 cm) in size, and “Alien”, which has elongated traps reminiscent of the Xenomorph XX121.
(Q): What Are Carnivorous Plant Types?
(A): There are over 10 genera of carnivorous plants, but they’re usually categorized by the type of trapping mechanism utilized.
There are 5 main types of traps; bladder-type traps that use vacuum suction to capture prey, flypaper-type traps that use sticky mucilage, lobster-pot trap type that allows the prey to enter without any chance of escape, pitfall traps that use pitchers into which the prey falls before drowning, and snap type traps, which close shut like fly traps.
Final Words
Any Venus flytrap grown at home can survive indefinitely, or at least continue to live through its clones. We hope this article helped you understand how it’s possible and gave you useful tips on taking care of this plant so you can enjoy growing it for as long as possible.
Sources:
https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2021/01/five-things-you-didnt-know-about-venus-flytraps
https://www.carnivorousplants.org/grow/guides/Dionaea
https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/chiwonlee/plsc368/student/papers01/cdegner/index.htm
