---
title: Venus flytrap in a terrarium | Glass Jar Garden
description: Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula): Snapping traps on a small rosette. Wants full sun and open air, not a sealed jar. Needs light 15,000 to 25,000 lux,...
url: https://glassjar.garden/guide/plants/dionaea-muscipula/
---

Plants

# Venus flytrap
Dionaea muscipula

Moderate · Open 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.

## Sources

- [carnivorousplants.org/grow/guides/Dionaea](https://www.carnivorousplants.org/grow/guides/Dionaea)
- [carnivorousplants.org/grow/guides/DionaeaChecklist](https://www.carnivorousplants.org/grow/guides/DionaeaChecklist)
- [plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/dionaea-muscipula](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/dionaea-muscipula/)
- [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_flytrap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_flytrap)

[Grow it in a jar](https://glassjar.garden/?guide=plants/dionaea-muscipula)

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