Saving the Venus fly trap

Ajouté : 2026-05-05

[00:00:01]We find Seth Don this morning in North Carolina searching for an exotic and increasingly endangered plant.

[00:00:10]>> Today we are rescuing Venus fly traps.

[00:00:13]This is actually our 10th rescue. We're in double digits now.

[00:00:17]>> It's a roadside rescue.

[00:00:19]>> This is a highly coveted plant >> of a rather unusual variety.

[00:00:24]>> You have to dig deep and spread the grasses around. First time volunteer Stephanie Dri was ready for the damp North Carolina morning.

[00:00:34]>> Can you see it?

[00:00:35]>> But was not expecting the size of the subject.

[00:00:38]>> In my head I always had like Seymour, you know, from Little Shop of Horrors.

[00:00:42]>> Feed me all night long.

[00:00:51]That horror comedy rock musical added to the outsized lore of the Venus fly trap.

[00:00:58]>> You'd think eat flies is going to be some big giant predator, but it's just a little tiny unassuming thing.

[00:01:04]>> Fly trap is not the best name for them.

[00:01:06]The joke is they should be called beetle traps or spider traps.

[00:01:10]>> The flies too fast.

[00:01:11]>> Flies get away.

[00:01:13]>> So weird looking.

[00:01:15]>> I don't mean it in a bad way, but they're >> they're fly traps. They're the coolest plant in the world.

[00:01:21]>> Botist Julie Moore has spent a good part of her life studying and helping to save this carnivorous plant, which holds tight plenty of surprises.

[00:01:32]>> What's your mission here?

[00:01:33]>> My mission here is to make people more aware of what they have.

[00:01:37]>> For one, it's native to this part of the Carolas. While Boiling Springs Lake near Wilmington may not seem like the center of much, >> these babies have done just fine.

[00:01:48]>> It is for these plants. Their natural habitat is a roughly 80 mile radius from here.

[00:01:55]>> You think of the Venus fly trap as an exotic plant, >> but it it's a a down home plant for this part of the world. It's a southern plant, >> but its native population is dwindling.

[00:02:07]Since the 1970s, more than half of fly trap plants have vanished.

[00:02:12]>> We really focus on where the plants will be disappearing very soon.

[00:02:17]>> Just simply place them in, getting a little bit of pressure and leveling them with the current substrate.

[00:02:23]>> They've dug up and replaced about 5,000 so far. The plants are easier to spot in summer when they shoot up a flower to be pollinated by an insect well away from those snapping traps. It's an evolutionary assist, but nature's survival mechanisms have limits. It >> used to be the threat was people thought poaching, stealing fly traps, and shipping them all over the world. That was the big threat. Well, no, not anymore. It's housing developments, new roads, um just more people.

[00:02:55]>> How quickly is this area developing >> uh rapidly? Uh Brunswick County is one of the fastest growing counties in the country. Gordon Harrove is city manager.

[00:03:05]Have you ever had to stop development because of the plants?

[00:03:09]>> Oh, yes. Yes. You know, developers wanted to move fast. Time is money. So, we will hold the permits to give us enough time to go out there and establish the time frame that we need to relocate the plants. I mean, with this growth coming, if we don't preserve them, who's going to?

[00:03:24]>> Darwin called it the most interesting plant in the world. To me, it's like the panda of the plant world. It's rare.

[00:03:32]It's interesting. It's charismatic.

[00:03:34]>> Damon Wade is the director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden. He told us there are only two plant species in the world with an active trap that closes over prey.

[00:03:46]>> It almost looks like an animal.

[00:03:48]>> Yeah, Darwin thought it could be an animal. He thought it might have been the transition between the plant in the animal world. rather Wade explained it's the plant's way of getting a sort of snack.

[00:04:01]>> They always grow in very nutrient poor um areas like bogs and savas and so they're compensating for the lack of nitrogen in the soil by getting it from the insects that they eat. You know, typical plant has seven to eight traps.

[00:04:17]It has to be touched more than once and within 20 seconds.

[00:04:22]Oh, there it goes. Wow, that's so cool.

[00:04:27]>> It's It's quick. It's a tenth of a second. It's hermetically sealing right now. And what'll do start to exude digestive enzymes inside that trap.

[00:04:37]>> That process takes about 10 days. At the botanical garden, they've frozen 94,000 fly trap seeds to preserve them for genetic diversity.

[00:04:48]>> There's been a large reduction in the number of sites. has gone from about 250 different sites where it occurs um naturally down to about 65 sites today.

[00:04:58]>> This is natural habitat for these fly traps. They're here. They're happy here.

[00:05:03]>> One of those sites now has a few hundred additional plants thanks to these volunteers and Julie Moore who admits worrying about these plants can keep her up at night.

[00:05:14]>> Once you can see loss happening before your eyes, it's easy to get involved.

[00:05:18]It's not in theory. is real here.

[00:05:21]>> What made you want to dedicate so much of your life today on this?

[00:05:26]>> Years ago, fly traps weren't a threatened species. They are now. What we saw happen today in the housing development, new roads, that's going to be the termination of this species. And hell, I don't want to be the person who knew this was going to happen and didn't do a damn thing.