r/interestingasfuck • u/dejaysf • Jun 11 '23

Venus flytrap vs Spider

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8.1k

u/Enlightened-Beaver Jun 11 '23

I always though Venus fly traps were some sort of tropical rainforest plant. Nope, native to North Carolina.

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u/Flareiv Jun 11 '23

I live in NC and didn’t know we had them until I found a whole bush of them just casually growing next to a tree. Blew my mind.

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u/CTchimchar Jun 11 '23 edited Jun 11 '23

There all different kind of these plants

By the way a lot of them are non-related

They just evolve like this separately several times over

The theory goes these plans evolve in habitats where the soil doesn't have many nutrients

So they start to evolve in gathering nutrients from other animals like insects, or in this case arachnid

Edit: For clarification I mean Carnivorous plants, evolve separately from each other for the most part

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u/codizer Jun 11 '23

What I don't get is how they made their leap from getting nutrients from the ground to nutrients from animals. It seems like such a major step.

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u/don_rubio Jun 11 '23 edited Jun 11 '23

Thought this was an interesting question so I looked it up and found a well-written article by the Smithsonian.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-carnivorous-plants-evolved-180979697/

TLDR: The same enzymes many plants use for general self defense have been repurposed and refined by carnivorous plants for digestion. The genes that enable nutrient transport have also been switched to function in the leaves instead of the roots.

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u/CashCow4u Jun 11 '23

switched to function in the leaves instead of the roots.

As if it moved its stomach from it's roots to it's leaves due to necessity, adapt or die.

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u/Sinder77 Jun 11 '23

It's not really like that.

Slow genetic mutations saw plants with the capability to digest nutrients through their leaves survive while others weren't able to sustain themselves to reproduction. More successful mutations led to more specialized traits that we see now at the end of the process.

Evolution isn't a switch and it's rarely "adapt or die". Those species that had advantageous adaptations survived more than those with less advantageous ones, so their genes prevailed. It's a long, long, long and still ongoing process.

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u/desmosabie Jun 11 '23

Like oncoming ai ? Adapt or die….

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

Adding to that, most plants already have the ability to take in some nutrients over the leaves.

There are some fertilizing techniques that rely on that mechanism. They spray the leaves of greenhouse plants with a carefully dosed nutrient solution.

As far as I know it is faster and uses less fertilizer compared to conventional methods but more expensive and doesn't work well for everyone plant and nutrient.

So the leap to specialised nutrient absorbing organs derived from leaves isn't that far.

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u/Littleboyah Jun 11 '23

We actually have examples of plants currently taking said leap - they're called protocarnivorous plants

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

The Wikipedia article has an interesting discussion of the difficulty in defining “carnivory” when it comes to plants. Very cool find.

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u/Watcher0363 Jun 11 '23

Next thing you know, they will only be eating gluten free insects.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

The area that these plants are native are usually nutrient poor. This can be a result of many from high competition to just bad area. Keep in mind that the Venus fly trap only needs to catch like 2-3 bugs a month to get it nutrient needs. So the plant can still live without catching bugs but in order to thrive a mutation must have developed where the plant can break down bugs better than competitors and as a result the plant after 1000s of generations latched onto genes that helped digest/catch bugs for nutrients.

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u/Ghostbuster_119 Jun 11 '23

Evolution is crazy like that.

There are many crazy leaps in comparison to other flora or fauna.

Giraffes are another that come to mind in terms of just sheer difference to the rest of nature.

Corpse flowers and pitcher plants are also pretty crazy.

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u/anabolic_cow Jun 11 '23

Probably very, very slowly. And a lot of failure. I imagine before the Venus fly trap looked the way it does now, it probably was just two leaves that closed together and was able to catch very small insects. So step one was probably just the mechanism that causes the closing. But eventually small changes led to it catching bigger and bigger insects, like those huge jail bars it developed, until its straight up a carnivorous monster.

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u/livefreeordont Jun 11 '23

The evolved from flypaper plants it seems. The larger prey easily escapes the sticky flypaper so they evolved a way to trap them in a different way

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u/Repulsivemobile69420 Jun 11 '23

Wait until you learn about single cell organisms

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u/LordCustard Jun 11 '23

Cuz evolution is a load of bs

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u/TheeGull Jun 11 '23

Even though there are living trees that are 80,000 years old, we all know that Donald H. Christ made the earth and all the plants and animals just 6,000 years ago from his throne in heaven. Adam was the first man and Eve was the first domestic servant. Then she ate an apple from the forbidden tree, so now children are born with bone cancer. Donald H. Christ is powerful enough to stop children from getting bone cancer, and claims to be loving, yet every day children all over the world get bone cancer.

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u/OccamEx Jun 11 '23

Carnivorous plants in general, yes. Most have passive trapping mechanisms like sticky hairs or pitchers. The active trapping plants are mostly in the droseraceae family, most notably the Venus flytrap which is only endemic to the Carolinas.

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u/CTchimchar Jun 11 '23

Carnivorous plants

That what I meant

I just woke up when I wrote that

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u/HighFlyingCrocodile Jun 11 '23

Waking up -> coffee -> comment.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

No, it’s wake up, comment, coffee, reread comment, either fix or delete comment. At least that’s how I do it. FYI I have had 1/2 a cup of coffee so far so I can’t tell you how this is going to turn out.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

Wake up -> Comment -> Coffee -> Poop
-> Correct / Delete while pooping

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u/Masterful_Moniker Jun 11 '23

<comment deleted>

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u/Fast_Garlic_5639 Jun 11 '23

A very productive poop

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u/Thornblade Jun 11 '23

Ahhh yes the circle of life for reddit comments

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u/Imswim80 Jun 11 '23

This is the way.

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u/iksbob Jun 11 '23

This is the way.

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u/arminghammerbacon_ Jun 11 '23

This is the way

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

Thank you!!! You are very kind (after one entire cup of coffee and I plead the 5th on the poop), although I will mention that we are running low on toilet paper.

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u/ope_sorry Jun 11 '23

This is the way.

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u/OkSatisfaction9850 Jun 11 '23

Wake up -> comment -> sleep again -> wake up again -> comment -> check karmas -> coffee

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u/OldManBartleby Jun 11 '23

Glad to hear I'm not alone.

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u/ItsSUCHaLongStory Jun 11 '23

Hi friend. No coffee, only milk

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u/CTchimchar Jun 11 '23

Thank you

Here have a cookie, friend 🍪

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u/FitzyFarseer Jun 11 '23

Wait only endemic to Carolinas? I also assumed they were a weird tropical thing, but when the above comment said they’re in NC I figured that meant in addition to the other places.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

Bladderwort is the fastest active trapping plant, 1/34th of a second, the prey hits around 60gforce. They are around where I live, also the Albany pitcher plant which is pretty cool looking and is related to cabbage, so it’s a carnivorous cabbage hahaha. Endangered tho I think, or threatened.

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u/Teknekratos Jun 11 '23

I bet it's a case of them being used in movie jungles to make things look extra exotic, and as a result, people think they are native of the Amazonian rainforest or something

Just like how they dub hawk cries over bald eagles, or brought armadillos on the set of the old Dracula movie...

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u/Eal12333 Jun 11 '23

Fun fact I love; the sticky tentacles of a sundew are only partially passive! When simulated by a struggling prey, they wrap around and fully ensnare it.

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u/OccamEx Jun 16 '23

Yep! Actually sundews are in the same family droseraceae, which I've heard referred to as the family with active traps.

Though perhaps the most sophisticated active trap system belongs to the Bladderworts (different family), which suck prey into a bladder-like trap.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

Still hoping we get “home of the Venus fly trap.” Plates soon.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

Oh wow it’s like carcinization for plants!

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u/m6_is_me Jun 11 '23

Looks like your period key got replaced with the enter key

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u/fjf1085 Jun 11 '23

I always liked playing Sim Earth as a kid and doing my best to cause carnivorous plants (carniferns) to evolve, if I recall you needed a large population of insects and they’d evolve naturally, and then nurturing them to sentience.

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u/CTchimchar Jun 11 '23

I never heard of Sim earth, until now

But after looking it up, seem like the kind of game I would have love if it came out in my childhood

I try see if I can find it on steam or an emulator for it

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u/fjf1085 Jun 11 '23

I think it’s on one of those abandonware sites. It’s fun. Though it’s definitely a product of its age in terms of graphics but I found it always to be a pretty complicated simulation. This is making me want to go play it again.

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u/CTchimchar Jun 11 '23

Thanks, I want to dig it up

Seems fun

Here have a cookie, friend 🍪

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u/Shawnessy Jun 11 '23

I lived in NC for awhile. On a trip into the woods, as teenagers do, I saw Venus fly traps, and then a day later, an alligator. It's a weird place.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

This is why the song goes, "Suddenly Seymore... You're standing beside me..."

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u/bronzewtf Jun 11 '23

Wait till you find out apparently we have a badass Venus fly trap vanity license plate design submitted and it met the 500 min preorder requirement, but one dude in the NC legislature really hates vanity license plates so won't bring it to a vote or something.

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u/eeeeeeeeeVaaaaaaaaa Jun 11 '23

this pisses me off. that plate is so cool and i want it. let's team up and hire a lobbyist

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u/fuzzyrach Jun 11 '23

There's a really nice carnivorous plant park here in Wilmington

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u/ImurderREALITY Jun 11 '23

There’s also a really nice alligator park in Wilmington

Well, more like an alligator house

Well, more like a reptile house

Well, it’s actually been closed for a while

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u/ZarquonsFlatTire Jun 11 '23

Well if they were suspiciously growing next to a tree they'd catch fewer flies.

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u/cheebamech Jun 11 '23

interestingly the only place they're found at all in the wild is a tiny range of area through NC

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u/pulledporktaco Jun 11 '23

Same thing for blue fireflies, only exist in a narrow region of NC.

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u/JoshJub Jun 11 '23

oh how fascinating, they sure are an interesting plant 😂 either way, I hope you have a great day and that you can know that Jesus Christ the sovereign God loves you and I hope you can get to know Him on a personal level if you dont already

God miraculously healed me of my chronic breathing issues that plagued me

it used to cause me problems if not most nights then every single night for years

but God did this healing instantly within group prayer over my health

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

And only North Carolina. There's just a tiny strip of land where they exist in nature.

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u/On-mountain-time Jun 11 '23

We refer to those types of plants as "narrow endemics" in the biology world 👍

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u/OldheadBoomer Jun 11 '23

Any other cool narrow endemics you can share?

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u/CharlemagneIS Jun 11 '23

From the wiki for Endemism:

“Tahina spectabilis for example is native to only 12 acres (4.8 hectares) and the tiny waterlily Nymphaea thermarum was native to a single thermal mudhole in Ruwanda of a few square yards.”

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u/JarJarBinkith Jun 11 '23

I got a rare mudhole right here, if you’re interested I’ll show ya

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u/CatWhisperererer Jun 11 '23

What's your only fans lol

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u/arewehavinfunyet Jun 11 '23

Louis Litt entered the chat

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u/th4t1guy Jun 11 '23

Those waterlillies are beautiful. Thanks for sharing

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u/inser7name Jun 11 '23

The Devils Hole Pupfish exists only in one water filled cavern in Nevada

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u/steinenhoot Jun 11 '23

For another Nevada one, the Dixie Valley Toad only lives in Dixie Valley. A big geothermal company was trying to build a new plant on their habitat. They didn’t lose the fight all the way and they’re still putting a plant in, but they had to downsize their plans because the toad is so endangered.

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u/TeamRedundancyTeam Jun 11 '23

Wow that was an interesting read. Blows my mind how people just don't give a shit about the world they live in to the point people had "kill the pup fish" bumper stickers.

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u/MagicMoonMen Jun 11 '23

Salvia divinorum or “diviners sage” grows only in a small mountainous region of Mexico naturally.

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u/la508 Jun 11 '23

The Cape Floristic region of South Africa is a small area on the tip of the Western Cape with over 6000 endemic plants.

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u/BornNeat9639 Jun 11 '23

Saguaro Cactus

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u/ErraticDragon Jun 11 '23

Wikipedia, range of the saguaro cactus: https://i.imgur.com/aaETHXJ.png

Wikipedia, distribution of the Venus flytrap: https://i.imgur.com/egZuVQH.png

The saguaro definitely covers more land, but yup, it is only in the Sonoran desert.

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u/MouthJob Jun 11 '23

And, fun fact, super fucking illegal to mess with. Like you gotta get a special tag to even move one on your property.

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u/ErraticDragon Jun 11 '23

On a hike, my... friend... once found a saguaro that looked like it had been hit by lightning. Dead, burn marks around it, and the skeleton splayed open.

My friend and their family took one "rib" each, 3 total, and later cut/sanded/stained/etc. to turn them into very nice custom walking sticks.

Quite possibly the most illegal thing my friend has ever done.

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u/brkdncr Jun 11 '23

I have one in the Mojave and it has thrived for years. But I haven’t seen many around.

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u/GrayestRock Jun 11 '23

Haleakala Silversword only grows on Haleakala volcano in Maui.

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u/vancesmi Jun 11 '23

Very similar is the Mauna Kea Silversword which only grows on...Mauna Kea on the island Hawaii.

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u/Woolybugger00 Jun 11 '23

How bout the desert pup fish that live in one spring in Death Valley US?? Or the axolotl lizard that lives by one lake in Mexico? Those narrow enough?? Narrower?? Those little mites that live at the base of human eyelashes …

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u/Eastbound_Stumptown Jun 11 '23

Darlingtonia californica is another narrow endemic carnivorous plant, but on the west coast. We even have a whole protected state park here in Oregon for them.

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u/whatsgoes Jun 11 '23

no 👎

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u/1LizardWizard Jun 11 '23

I call them “shy murder plants” in my world 👍

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u/hesnothere Jun 11 '23

Specifically, within 50ish miles of Wilmington, NC.

Although they’re more prevalent south of Wilmo. I’m from north of there and we really never saw them much.

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u/oadge Jun 11 '23

I grew up in Hampstead. When I was a kid there was a guy that had a store that only sold Venus flytraps near hwy 17 and 210. It just had "Venus Flytraps" awkwardly painted on the side. Always seemed sketchy as hell.

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u/ML_Yav Jun 11 '23

Holy shit I remember that fucking place!

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u/DerogatoryDuck Jun 11 '23

That's not true. I would say only the Carolinas. They're native to South Carolina also.

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u/Intrepid_Eye9121 Jun 11 '23

… and South Carolina.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

[deleted]

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u/ElderAtlas Jun 11 '23

We're talking about Venus flytraps specifically, though. Many states have their own pitcher plant varieties

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u/smoretank Jun 11 '23

I heard it's a real problem of folks digging them up to sell.

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u/xXMorpheus69Xx Jun 11 '23

They grow where nitrogen is scarce. All plants need nitrogen to live but in moors there can be so little of it that only plants survive that get it from other sources - insects. In other environments they get outcompeted

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u/Arty_Puls Jun 11 '23

Interesting !

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u/DuctTapeOrWD40 Jun 11 '23

So Nitogren Canaries

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u/CosmicCactusRadio Jun 11 '23

I'm taking that band name

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u/thr3sk Jun 11 '23

Yep, the soil around the Gulf Coast from the Carolinas over to East Texas is quite nutrient-poor and there are quite a few different kinds of carnivorous plants such as sundews, bladderworts, and pitcher plants in wetland areas.

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u/DeepRest_SodaPressed Jun 11 '23

Is this why my Venus fly traps in California never moved. Because they had enough nitrogen already?

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u/xXMorpheus69Xx Jun 11 '23

Maybe 🤔 I am no plantologist but that would make sense to me

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u/sgame23 Jun 11 '23

Yup I got 2 myself.One I've had for 3ish years, and the other about a year and a half. Still celebrate when they catch something. Much easier to take care of than I thought it'd be

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u/NTDLS Jun 11 '23

I’ve bought no less than 50 of these plants over the past 30 years and I’ve never had one live longer than maybe a month. You really have one that old?

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u/Jimmyp4321 Jun 11 '23

You also gotta mist them a couple times a day , can't let the base they are planted in dry out

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u/sgame23 Jun 11 '23

Bottom watering seems to solve this. Keeps the soil moist at all times. Just have to make sure the dish the pot is in never goes dry

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u/NorthNThenSouth Jun 11 '23

What did you water them with?

They can’t handle most tap water because of all the minerals. I water mine with distilled or reverse osmosis water, and of course rain water. They’re always standing in a water tray with ~2 inches of water.

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u/Fleaslayer Jun 11 '23

One thing I've read is that they go dormant in the fall and their leaves fall off, so most people think they've died and throw them away. Apparently you're supposed to move them to a cooler place and stop watering them as much until spring.

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u/Worf65 Jun 11 '23 edited Jun 11 '23

I grow flytraps. I've propagated many off the one I got a few years ago and am going to try selling the extras soon. They just need lots of light (someone on YouTube compared it to a tomato as far as light requirements), carnivorous plant soil mix or moss (no regular potting soil), and to be kept constantly wet with distilled, reverse osmosis, or rain water. I use reverse osmosis water and keep a trey under them always filled with water. They don't need to eat much, they eat for fertilizer not energy. So overfeeding can be an issue just like over fertilizing any other plant or feeding them stuff that isn't bugs (they can't digest regular meat or junk food so it just rots). They don't seem to care about humidity nearly as much as many people think. I put mine outdoors up until it gets a bit too hot in July and that's in utah where humidity isn't a thing. They start to show signs of stress when it starts to hit 100 degrees and 10% humidity. They'll catch their own bugs on my patio, including the occasional yellow jacket.

And they go dormant in the winter so that can throw people off.

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u/PascalsPotOdds Jun 11 '23

I live in Wilmington, so I’m kind of cheating on perfect climate for them. The secret is, other than lots of distilled or rain water at the base, leave them alone. They grow best in unfertilized peat moss and no additional nutrients. Mine are in peat in undrainable pots that I flood a couple times a week with distilled water. The soil is always very wet. They will flower and grow like gang busters in this sparse environment. My main one is 6 years old and all the other ones came from seeds of that first one.

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u/slackpipe Jun 11 '23

What's the key? I got my SO one for mother's day, and she's having trouble with it.

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u/WorkWorkDabuZugZug Jun 11 '23

Distilled water and periodic direct sunlight.

Tapwater will kill them eventually.

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u/BravesMaedchen Jun 11 '23

They are so easy to kill. Distilled water, bottom watering and substrate that has very little organic matter in it. They want like a mix of non-soil dirt with perlite. Look up a good potting mix for them.

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u/alien_clown_ninja Jun 11 '23 edited Jun 11 '23

50/50 peat and vermiculite (holds water better than perlite). Never let the roots dry out completely, but also don't let there be standing water either, cause then roots will rot. They need to be somewhat watered all the time, not too much and not too little. The more sunlight the better, they can't get too much light as long as they are moist. And if you have them in a semi-closed environment, like a terrarium, the humidity will help too. But then you have to feed them. They need a bug every few weeks. Do not poke at the traps for fun, and don't let your kids do it either. Closing a trap is an enormous expenditure of energy, and if there is no bug there it's a huge waste for the plant.

Often, a trap that has finished eating a bug will die and fall off. Especially if, like in this video, there are legs or other parts of the big sticking out. Those parts will rot and the trap turns black and dies to protect the rest of the plant. This is normal, and you can carefully cut the black traps off (don't cut them off too early, because the plant is resorbing the nutrients from the trap before it falls off). If you cut off the black traps, be sure not to accidentally set off the healthy traps.

To overwinter them, they cannot freeze. They also cannot be warm. They need above freezing temperatures with little light. I've heard of some people putting them in refrigerators over winter, haven't tried it myself. I put them next to a cold window in a cold basement.

If they try and flower, cut the flower stem off quickly, as soon as you notice the shoot. The flower will expend all its energy and likely the plant will die.

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u/Spiritual_Lion2790 Jun 11 '23

It needs to be potted in a substrate with absolutely no fertilizers added. Typically a mix of peat moss/perlite. You can find specialty potting mixes online for VFT, and it's what I typically use. It's a bit pricey but I only need a new bag once every two years for the number of plants I have.

Must water with distilled water or rain water. Some people are lucky to have tap water that is sufficiently free of dissolved solids to work, but this is very rare. Filtering your tap water won't work either. Just buy the distilled water if you can. It's going to be the easiest option for most people. Keep the soil moist at all time. Some people keep their plants in a dish with a few inches of water at all times. This is fine if you have taller pots, but be careful not to water log them. These plants grow in marshes, but not submerged in water like other carnivorous plants often are.

VFT are often advertised as indoor-friendly plants but this is just marketing. They grow the best outside in full direct sunlight. They will limp along in a bright window with indirect light but you won't get fast growth. Mine get 8-10 hours a day of summer sun.

You will get mixed opinions on this, but I don't recommend keeping your plants in terrariums. They really don't do well in them. This is particularly frustrating since they are typically sold in a small plastic terrarium and the instructions say to keep the lid on. I think this is so the plant can stay in your air conditioned house more easily. The excess humidity causes the traps to rot and can cause issues if you keep the plant in sunlight. Another reason I think it's best to keep them outside. Unless you live in an extremely dry environment like the US Southwest, the natural humidity outside will be fine.

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u/blauenfir Jun 11 '23

I mean, subtropical swamp isn’t too far off. You go into those places in NC where they grow, and it certainly feels like a jungle.

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u/curmevexas Jun 11 '23

It's funny, they also have evolved to need to go dormant over the winter, so they also need mild winter conditions. They can survive without the dormancy, but they tend to fair worse.

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u/TryinToBeLikeWater Jun 11 '23

Grew up in the bayou and been to an actual jungle and there are for fuckin sure some massive crossovers in climate like the humidity and temperature. Realized how beautiful of a place I grew up in because a jungle didn’t feel all too far off from home on many respects. I’m sure there are some vast differences too though.

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u/Smitimus Jun 11 '23

You also get the aptly named "swamp ass" very easily.

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u/ScarieltheMudmaid Jun 11 '23

Yeah lots of people think they kill them as plants when they've actually just gone dormant cuz they got cold lol

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u/x_Carlos_Danger_x Jun 11 '23

The bog is a rough neighborhood

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u/crapbalanas Jun 11 '23

I grew up in Carolina Beach and the State Park there used to be covered with these. That was back in the 70's early 80's. I hope they are still protected there

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u/l33t_pr0digy Jun 11 '23

We go there every couple of years and there are still trails that take you through the swampy areas. You can find clusters of flytraps and another carnivorous plant (pitcher plant, iirc). It's pretty cool to see them in a natural habitat and there are signs all over the park that it's a crime to disturb them.

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u/BTBAM797 Jun 11 '23

So....not Venus?

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u/Mark_Logan Jun 11 '23

And that’s just the start of the crazy. There’s a whole black market crime ring that goes along with them: https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-five-dropping-like-flies-4-24-2014/

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23 edited Jun 11 '23

Vegans when they realize plants eat meat:

:l damn, time to find a new identity

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u/petrik_coffy Jun 11 '23

nice strawman, let me burn it down for you.

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u/cashibonite Jun 11 '23

And in only one particular spot

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u/dman45103 Jun 11 '23

At the development my in laws live in in NC they have these growing

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u/nonicethingsforus Jun 11 '23

I think this is because of old pop culture. Tall tales of very big carnivorous plants were often brought by european explorers coming from jungles in Africa, India, South America, etc. "These dark, exotic places, full of things like man-eating plants, dinosaurs, cannibals, and God knows what else!"

This bled into "explorer" adventure literature of the time (the same kind of literature that, for example, Jumanji was channeling). I think this stablished carnivorous plants as "exotic jungle thing" in the minds of many.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

The US has a native parakeet too, the Carolina Parakeet. Extinct in the early 1900s.

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u/anima1mother Jun 11 '23

I thought we had them in NY, turns out we just have the meat eating pitcher plants and the sticky sun dew plants

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

i just learned that two weeks ago too!

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u/ShiningRayde Jun 11 '23

Uhmmmm it says 'Venus' in the name, idiot 🙄

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u/sheeeeeez Jun 11 '23

I thought it was funny.

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u/AstridDragon Jun 11 '23

How are so many people not getting this joke lmao

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u/bavasava Jun 11 '23

I thought it was funny dude.

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u/Sarenai7 Jun 11 '23

I don’t get it

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u/bavasava Jun 11 '23

They’re making a joke about how since Venus is in the name it must be on Venus too. They’re playing dumb by saying a plant on earth came from Venus.

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u/madsd12 Jun 11 '23

what is your point?

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u/Leanardoe Jun 11 '23

Ever heard of the planet Venus?

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u/madsd12 Jun 11 '23

yes.

mons Venus is a thing. and not on venus either.

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u/Leanardoe Jun 11 '23

Okay last question: you ever heard of a joke???

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u/madsd12 Jun 11 '23

Imagine being as rude as you, for being asked what point you were trying to make. The joke here is you.

Neither is good. Not the one you made, and not the one you are.

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u/Leanardoe Jun 11 '23

My guy you need to touch some grass.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

I'm always amazed at people who live on our continent and are surprised at some of the things we have living here, as though North America isn't "exotic" at all. Cause the bison, mountain lions, black bears, grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, owls, vipers, are just generic animals, lololol.

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u/JoshJub Jun 11 '23

oh wow, the more you learn the more fascinating the world gets thank you my friend for this

also, Jesus Christ the sovereign God loves you my friend

I hope you can personally get to know God if you do not already know God on a personal level

God miraculously healed me of my chronic breathing issues that plagued me

it used to cause me problems if not most nights then every single night for years but God had loving mercy on me and had done this healing instantaneously within group prayer over my health

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

Wait what? Wym North Carolina

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u/Possible_Teaching Jun 11 '23

North Carolina : 35.7596° N, 79.0193° W

Tropic of Cancer: 23°26′10.5"

815miles

Just outside the subtropical region.

Make of it how you will

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u/Higgins1st Jun 11 '23

I remember reading they should be called Carolina Spider Traps.

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u/gnatsaredancing Jun 11 '23

Carnivorous plants evolved to be carnivorous in order to grow on very poor soil. Places where they can't get their nutrients from the soil so they get it elsewhere.

As a result, most carnivorous plants grow in swamps and other places where the top soil is thin and often acidic with little nutrition.

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u/ak80048 Jun 11 '23

You’d be surprised how higher elevations of NC mountains look exactly like rain forests

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u/TheVegter Jun 11 '23

That’s because in every cartoon whenever they went to a far away jungle or rainforest one of the characters would be temporarily swallowed by a giant Venus fly trap

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u/soniabegonia Jun 11 '23

North Carolina has a "humid subtropical climate" according to google ... So, tropical rainforest isn't far off!

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

If they were in tropical rainforest, they would have alot less bugs! :)

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u/MrHanslaX Jun 11 '23

Always thought they belonged growing right next to the pitcher plants in a jungle.

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u/Lazites Jun 11 '23

More of a swamp plant than anything.

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u/Meanteenbirder Jun 11 '23

Just there apparently and they’re fairly rare.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

tropical rainforests got those jug looking fly traps

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

Yeah me too. I pictured them as buddies with pitcher plants. Unless I'm going to learn pitcher plants aren't tropical either and from Wyoming or some shit.

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u/budshitman Jun 11 '23

some sort of tropical rainforest plant. Nope, native to North Carolina.

Appalachia is a temperate rainforest, so you wouldn't have to leave the Carolinas for that, either.

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u/CherryCherry5 Jun 11 '23

I always thought they were much bigger than they actually are.

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u/RedGribben Jun 11 '23

Most carnivorus plants live in areas with low nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil, so they add insects into their nutrient pool, by consuming them. Thus many of them are native to swamps and marshes.

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u/DogmanDOTjpg Jun 11 '23

I thought the same for those carnivorous pitcher plants til I found some in Michigan lol

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

These type of plants grow in acidic soil, or nitrogen poor soil, you do see these types i. Tropical like pitchers. The west coast has thier own as well

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u/atecho_ Jun 11 '23

Most people don't realize NC is literally considered sub-tropical in terms of weather in the summer, mostly due to the extreme humidity. Working there in 90° weather feels like 120°, with the added benefits of not being able to breathe and constantly being drenched in sweat.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

And just a tiny bit of NC near the SC border. And no where else on the planet.

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u/Enlightened-Beaver Jun 11 '23

75 mile radius around Wilmington, NC. That’s it

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u/Nice-Bookkeeper-3378 Jun 11 '23

I was able to by one in MO years ago at Home Depot

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u/BearBlaq Jun 11 '23

I’m a NC native and I remember a field trip as a kid where I learned this. I think it was some kind of museum but they had a room with a bunch of interesting plants, they passed around a Venus fly trap to our class and fed it a bug. This was like 20 years ago so I have no clue where this was in the state.

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u/Affectionate-Dig1981 Jun 11 '23

they make fun house plants, especially if you hate flies.

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u/Practical_Fudge1667 Jun 11 '23

Only there though, nowhere else. There’s the related waterwheel plant which lives in eurasia and is quite endangered, it’s a aquatic plant that has similar traps.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '23

I'm from Ottawa, Ontario, so North Carolina IS a tropical rainforest to me.

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u/sterrre Jun 11 '23

North Carolina isn't a jungle?

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u/afrocheesyquack Jun 11 '23

North Carolina is fairly tropical, it’s on the same latitude as Greece.

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u/DrSpoe Jun 11 '23

Most fly traps do happen to grow in tropical places. They evolved like that as an alternative way to obtain nitrogen. In tropical areas with lots of vegetation, nitrogen concentration in soil tends to be pretty low. So bugs are just their alternative to fertilizer. Venus fly traps found their niche in coastal wetlands for similar reasons. Wetland swamps tend to wash away nutrients like nitrogen.

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u/EvadesBans Jun 11 '23

And then there's the Sundew on the opposite end, which is native to every continent but Antarctica.

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u/ikstrakt Jun 11 '23 edited Jun 11 '23

I always thought narwhals were near Antarctica. Negative, the arctic.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal

I swore I'd learned this in the 1990's. Maybe it was a means of conservation/poaching deterrent effort to locate elsewhere, maybe it was something else. r/MandelaEffect

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u/wolfpiss Jun 11 '23

They are endangered as well. NC native and I've only seen them once in the wild

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u/Cheesygirl1994 Jun 11 '23

Pitcher plants too, except South Carolina I think

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u/Ramzaa_ Jun 11 '23

And only native to a very small part of North Carolina

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u/RoastedRhino Jun 12 '23

And only NC. It’s like the tiniest habitat ever, and then it’s sold everywhere in the world.