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It's carnivorous. Not many plants eat things other than sunlight. Even fewer (about four species) are capable of rapid movement. This makes it seem like it might be from another planet. Actually, it's from boggy areas of North and South Carolina, where the soil is poor in nutrients. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap prepares to close, snapping shut only if another contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds of the first strike. Triggers may occur if one-tenth of the insect is within contact. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against wasting energy by trapping objects with no nutritional value, and the plant will only begin digestion after five more stimuli to ensure it has caught a live bug worthy of consumption.
