TRANSCRIPT:
Hello this is Dr. Tom Mullikin with SCDNR for Into the Wild.
Most people picture a Venus flytrap growing somewhere tropical, but its natural home is much closer. This remarkable plant is native to a small part of the Carolinas, including wet pine savannas in northeastern South Carolina.
Flytraps grow in sunny, acidic soils that are wet but poor in nutrients. Their hinged leaves help make up for that shortage. When an insect brushes the sensitive hairs inside a trap, the leaf can close and begin breaking down the meal.
These plants also depend on open habitat maintained by periodic fire. Without sunlight, they can be shaded out by shrubs and trees. A Venus flytrap is small enough to fit in your palm, but it tells a much larger story about rare soils, careful land management, and a natural wonder found almost nowhere else.