Venus flytrap

[vee-nuhs flahy-trap]

noun

1. a carnivorous plant, Dionaea muscipula, native to bogs of North Carolina and South Carolina, having roundish leaves with two lobes that close like a trap when tiny, sensitive hairs on their inner surfaces are irritated, as by a fly: classified as a vulnerable species and currently known to exist naturally only in sites within 56 miles (90 kilometers) of Wilmington, North Carolina.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Venus flytrap¹

First recorded in 1925–30