FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have a classmate who found Venus Fly Traps, Sundews and Pitcher plants in a mountain. I wish for him to grab me one. (but he said in the summer. I'll wait for a long time...) Would it be okay if he just took it from the wild? Would it do anything bad? Would that hurt their natural habitat? I really want free stuff. Seriously... I wish to get rare stuff to make you jealous Too bad there aren't any Pings... they are beautiful! And also, if I get a chance, I might cross pollinate them. (I know nothing though I'll learn.)

And I still thank my Venus Fly Trap for bringing me here

I doubt that your friend is telling the truth (unless he's recently been to North or South Carolina), but if he is, I'm pretty sure that Venus Fly Traps are a protected speices, so he can't legally dig them up.

As we all love our carnivorous plants, and as tempting as it might sometimes be, we all have a duty of care not to collect specimens from the wild. This is the only way that we can protect remnant populations and preserve what little habitat remains. There are more interesting cultivars available now than what you might find growing in the wild anyway, and some of these cultivars can be much harder to obtain than a typical (wild) Dionaea.

Lily,

At one time Venus Flytraps nearly populated half the states of North and South Carolina. Because of home building and poaching their natural habitat has been reduced to a 90 miles radius on the borders of North and South Carolina.
Like Linton said, it is our duty to make sure that no plants are collected from the wild. Otherwise when you become a young lady one day and start your own family, there may not be Dionaea in the wild for them to see.

Giovanni

Okay, I won't (ask him to) grab one then. I rather grow my own though. It's more fun to see the seed (which I don't have yet,) grow into a young plant. By the way, where is south or north Carolina?

Well said Linton and Giovanni. And good decision Lily (about not collecting wild plants).

lemonlily wrote:By the way, where is south or north Carolina?

They are on the coast of the south east United States. See here:
Google Map of North and South Carolina

Lily,

A great book that is available for free at most public libraries that I highly recommend is Carnivorous Plants by Tony Camilleri. It was written in 1998 and shows a great map of North and South Carolina and how Dionaea used to populate nearly half the states. On the map it also shows how much of their natural habitat is left. He also has some great basic information on how to take care of Dionaea and introduces Dionaea 'Big Mouth'. Unfortunately, since his book was written, even more of their natural habitat has been destroyed.
Giovanni

I tried to request the book but I couldn't find it.

Lily,

Maybe you can have your parents buy it for you on amazon.com for Christmas?


Giovanni

Honestly, I don't want books as much as you do. But here, its great. I can get lots of help here.