Plants
Venus flytrap
Dionaea muscipula
ModerateOpen jar only
Snapping traps on a small rosette. Wants full sun and open air, not a sealed jar.
What the simulation uses
- Light
- 15,000 to 25,000 lux
- The brightness it grows well in.
- Humidity
- 40 to 70 % RH
- Air moisture it is happy in; below the lower end it dries out.
- Temperature
- 20 to 32 °C
- Comfortable range; outside it growth slows.
- Dies at
- below -7 or above 40 °C
- Days beyond these temperatures kill it.
- Soil pH
- 3.5 to 5.5 pH
- Soil acidity it prefers.
- Grows up
- 1 cm/month
- How fast it gains height in good conditions.
- Spreads
- 0.65 cm/month
- How fast its edge creeps outwards.
- Copes with wet
- excellent
- How well it stands soggy soil; poor means rot comes quickly.
- Copes with still air
- fair
- Sealed jars have still air; poor means grey mould finds it.
- Copes with shade
- poor
- How well it holds on in dim light.
- Copes with drying
- poor
- How well it survives the jar drying out.
- Water use
- 0.07 ml/cm²/day
- Water drawn up from its roots per cm² of leaves in room air; a sealed jar cuts this to a fraction and returns it down the glass.
- Leaf drop
- 3 %/month
- Share of its leaves it sheds each month as litter for the cleanup crew.
- Soft leaves
- yes
- Soft new growth that hungry isopods will nibble.
- Full size
- 17.5 cm tall, 15 cm wide
- Its size when grown, before the lid stops it.
Care
- Day length
- 12 to 16 h
- Substrate
- Wet
What kills it
- tap or bottled water above ~90 ppm TDS
- any fertiliser in soil
- insufficient light
- perlite or wrong sand with minerals
- skipped winter dormancy (slow decline)
- closed humid container (mould, rot)
Description
Sealed jars are a poor home for a flytrap. It needs full sun, a cool winter rest every year and only pure water. Mineral-rich tap water or any fertiliser will kill it, so grow it on a sunny windowsill or in an open bog dish.
Also called VFT.
Estimated, where sources were thin: temp_c; temp_lethal_c; dormancy temps (3-10 C for ~3 months is hobby consensus, not on fetched pages); ph (NC State only says below 6.0); humidity_rh_pct.