How Do Venus Flytraps Reproduce?

Flower Pollination

Although the Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant, it is still a plant. It uses its flowers to reproduce naturally. Pollination, either by hand or by insect, takes pollen from the flower's anthers and places it on the flower's stigma. The flowers on a Venus flytrap tend to stand up higher than the leaves so that insects can successfully pollinate the plant without being eaten. A Venus flytrap can pollinate itself, but growers recommend that cross pollinating a venus flytrap plant with another of its kind will result in stronger offspring. A successfully pollinated plant will leave behind a pod of tiny black seeds, less than 2mm in size, when the flower dies off. Plant seeds immediately for successful germination.

Leaf Pullings and Flower Stalks

A Venus flytrap can also reproduce by starting a new plant from the leaves or flower stalk of an existing plant. This is known as vegetative propagation and it is usually done with human assistance. However, if a single Venus flytrap plant has more than seven leaves, it has already started to divide into two plants at the root level. To start a new plant from a leaf, first remove the parent plant from the soil to expose the roots. Then pull a healthy leaf from the outside of the plant, retaining a piece of the rhizome at the bottom. This leaf can then be placed in the same growing material as the parent plant came from and will eventually sprout new leaves. Similarly, if the flower stalk is removed from a parent plant and re-planted upright in the same soil, it will begin growing on its own.

Tissue Culture

Professional Venus flytrap cultivators may use a more scientific means of reproducing the plants. Seeds, leaves or flower stalks are sterilized, then set in petri dishes rather than soil for in vitro propagation. The petri dishes contain a special hormone, sugar and vitamin-rich medium that encourages the plant to grow without needing soil. The plan will remain in this dish for several weeks until it is large enough to transplant into standard Venus flytrap soil.