Pitcher plants and Venus' flytraps are relatively well known. Sundews and butterworts are less so. Bladderworts are probably the least familiar of our carnivorous plants. Most of these plants live in highly acidic wetland habitats low in soil nutrients. To survive under such conditions, plants must have mechanisms to compensate for the low availability of nutrients.
Carnivorous plants lure and capture their prey in different ways.
In some, the plant actually moves, most in slow motion but some with alacrity. The one with the most pizzazz is the showy Venus' flytrap, whose modified leaves perform a special magic trick for insects. The two halves of the trap look like a large, opened butter bean with long spines around the edges. The scent from nectar glands on the inside of the open leaf attracts flies and other insects. When a bug alights and a leg hits any of several hair triggers, the two halves of the trap slam shut faster than a fly can escape.