Many plants make their food from water and sunlight,but

sone plants are carnivorous,which means that they eat meat.

Although most of theae carnivorous plants do not live only

on meat,they do get some of their food from insects.

One of these carnivorous plants is called the Venus

flytrap.

The Venus flytrap grows in wetlands in the Carolinas,in

the United States.

Each plant has a long,thin stalk with several flowers

at the top of it,and ten to twelve leaves.

Each leaf has sharp spines along the outside of both

sides.

When something like a small insect lands on a leaf,the

sides of the leaf come together like two hands closing

and the insect is trapped between the spines.

Insects land on the Venus flytrap because they can smell

something sweet and they think there is food in the

flower.

On the leaf there are little hairs near the spines.

If an insect touches one of these hairs,nothing happens,

but if an insect touches tow or three of them,the

leaves close very quickly,and the insect is trapped by

the spines.

People have seen the leaves close in less than half a

second.

Once the flytrap has caught an insect,it pours poison

over it and then eats it.

When the plant has finished eating,the leaf opens up

again and is ready for the next passing meal.

The spines don’t last very long.

After three or four insects have been trapped,the Venus

flytrap has to grow new spines.

The name " Venus flytrap " is not really a good name

for this plant because it does not catch flies.

It mostly catches other insects.

A large Venus flytrap can even catch a small frog.