From the column 'Photos From Beyond'Venus flytraps are an endangered species native to North Carolina. The carnivorous plants grow in bogs, mostly within a 75-mile range for Wilmington. Flytraps face extinction both from development, which has altered the conditions of the plants very specific habitat, and from poachers who sneak around the government-owned land to pick them. While the plants grow quite well in captivity and can be found in greenhouses across the world, poaching is a real threat to their existence in their natural habitat.
We sought out the elusive plants in both their natural habitat and in nearby greenhouses to better understand the implications of poaching and development to their existence in the wild.
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Venus flytraps in the wild, outside of Wilmington, NC.
A flytrap in the brush. The plant needs ample sunlight to thrive. Too much brush growth can starve the plant of sunlight, eventually killing it.
Up close with the plant in the wild.
A local greenhouse where flytraps are cloned and grown, preserving the species outside of the wild.
The flytrap is quite responsive to cloning.