Dionaea muscipula
Overview
A detailed profile for this species is sourced from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as assessments become available.
The Venus flytrap faces severe habitat loss due to residential and commercial development within its extremely limited native range in the coastal plains of North and South Carolina. Poaching for the horticultural trade has significantly reduced wild populations, with thousands of plants illegally harvested annually despite legal protections. Fire suppression has altered the natural fire regime essential for maintaining the open, nutrient-poor wetland habitats where the species thrives. Climate change and sea level rise threaten the low-lying coastal bog ecosystems that represent the entirety of its natural habitat.
Habitat
Venus flytraps are endemic to nutrient-poor, acidic wetlands including longleaf pine savannas, pocosins, and bog margins within a 100-mile radius of Wilmington, North Carolina. These specialized carnivorous plants require consistently moist, sandy or peaty soils with high acidity and depend on periodic fires to maintain the open canopy conditions necessary for their survival.