FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I got these at my local garden center. I must say, this brand seems to put out good flytraps- the plants all looked robust, and were good-sized both in terms of maturity and in terms of trap size. I did, however, as you can see, find two that are definitely not the usual fare.

I know flytraps can't be labeled as anything other than "typical" if they're purchased unlabeled, and I won't be labeling these, but one is pretty clearly something like Moon Traps (complete with nonfunctional traps) and the other looks like Bristletooth or a somewhat sun-deprived Crimson Sawtooth.
EDIT: nope! Not a Moon Traps type. It grew out of that. The other has turned out to be almost certainly Red Piranha.

How do we suppose this happened? The website for this brand only sells a standard flytrap, they don't offer any specific cultivars. And yet- here these are. Same tag, same pot, same-sized plant as the others, presumably the same source.

Either way, I'm pleased with them. I'm excited to see what they look like given some proper light, and they should make good test subjects for a grow light I want to test.

I've put them in the same pot to save on space. We'll give them a few months and see how they turn out.

The standard one turned out to be three. They have quite small rhizomes compared to the other two, maybe 1/3 the width at most, so I'm excited to see how large it gets once given the chance. I picked this one up because I suspected it might not be purchased otherwise, as the others were all larger and generally better-looking than this poor flattened one, and it's always nice to watch a bedraggled plant grow and thrive.

I do think that bristle-toothed one is a light-deprived red cultivar, from that blush near the center. I have one leaf from one of the standard traps over a leaf from it, and am curious to see if it will get a sort of tan line from that if/when it does color up.

I think I managed to bend nearly every trap on the moon-type one. Those splayed traps are hard not to hurt when the plant is curved outward like these are. That one has a flower stalk, which I've left on, as the plant is very robust and I want to get some seeds. I'll probably keep a few seeds for myself and send some in to the seed bank- I imagine someone out there would like to find out what would result from self-pollinating this plant that I technically can't call a Moon Traps but which is clearly something similar to Moon Traps.

I now feel confident saying, 1, that sawtooth-type is something red, and 2, this light is bright enough to grow flytraps. I have another set doing well under the same light, besides these. Though the spread of the light remains to be seen.

The overlapping leaf has created a sort of tan line. I may experiment with putting (lightly adhered) stickers on this plant to see if I can create patterns intentionally. Not for any practical purpose, just for sheer curiosity- though it would be neat to be able to write on one.

Fishkeeper wrote:

traps.png

traps2.png

I got these at my local garden center. I must say, this brand seems to put out good flytraps- the plants all looked robust, and were good-sized both in terms of maturity and in terms of trap size. I did, however, as you can see, find two that are definitely not the usual fare.

I know flytraps can't be labeled as anything other than "typical" if they're purchased unlabeled, and I won't be labeling these, but one is pretty clearly something like Moon Traps (complete with nonfunctional traps) and the other looks like Bristletooth or a somewhat sun-deprived Crimson Sawtooth.

How do we suppose this happened? The website for this brand only sells a standard flytrap, they don't offer any specific cultivars. And yet- here these are. Same tag, same pot, same-sized plant as the others, presumably the same source.

Either way, I'm pleased with them. I'm excited to see what they look like given some proper light, and they should make good test subjects for a grow light I want to test.

So it looks like "little pot of horrors" is owned by www.bugbitingplants.com and If you go to their home page they indeed do have certain cultivars that they sell, I’ll get the link but, I really think these are extras that they might be throwing into the masses they send to the big box stores. I think that if they are running low on large typical fly traps, they probably send out whatever else that they might have in stock at that time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Fishkeeper wrote:

traps.png

traps2.png

I got these at my local garden center. I must say, this brand seems to put out good flytraps- the plants all looked robust, and were good-sized both in terms of maturity and in terms of trap size. I did, however, as you can see, find two that are definitely not the usual fare.

I know flytraps can't be labeled as anything other than "typical" if they're purchased unlabeled, and I won't be labeling these, but one is pretty clearly something like Moon Traps (complete with nonfunctional traps) and the other looks like Bristletooth or a somewhat sun-deprived Crimson Sawtooth.

How do we suppose this happened? The website for this brand only sells a standard flytrap, they don't offer any specific cultivars. And yet- here these are. Same tag, same pot, same-sized plant as the others, presumably the same source.

Either way, I'm pleased with them. I'm excited to see what they look like given some proper light, and they should make good test subjects for a grow light I want to test.

Here is what I was referring to: https://www.bugbitingplants.com/venus_flytraps

They have all kinds of different cultivars.

I hope that answers hopefully most of your curiosity with these 3 interesting blends of flytraps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Greenleaf_999 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 07, 2024 4:46 pm Here is what I was referring to: https://www.bugbitingplants.com/venus_flytraps

They have all kinds of different cultivars.

I hope that answers hopefully most of your curiosity with these 3 interesting blends of flytraps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Aha, that would do it! That gets me a name for these red ones- the only full red, sawtooth-like plant they have is the Red Piranha. Interestingly, I don't see anything similar to a Moon Traps listed there. This can't possibly be an unrelated seed-grown mutation, right? They must have simply taken the listing down or not put it up?

Thanks for the link! How'd you figure out who they're owned by?

Fishkeeper wrote:

Greenleaf_999 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 07, 2024 4:46 pm Here is what I was referring to: https://www.bugbitingplants.com/venus_flytraps

They have all kinds of different cultivars.

I hope that answers hopefully most of your curiosity with these 3 interesting blends of flytraps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Aha, that would do it! That gets me a name for these red ones- the only full red, sawtooth-like plant they have is the Red Piranha. Interestingly, I don't see anything similar to a Moon Traps listed there. This can't possibly be an unrelated seed-grown mutation, right? They must have simply taken the listing down or not put it up?

Thanks for the link! How'd you figure out who they're owned by?

Many many years of experience with these plants. I was 5 years old when I got my first and I was a natural at growing these for awhile. That moon trap variety might me a sunburned/overheated or even a death cube plant that wilted. It should have more color, give it time, and try not to let it flower, it looks as if it might be trying to send up a "last resort" flower, to hopefully try and make seeds. Lowe’s isn’t known for keeping plants alive, neither is Home Depot, but as far as I know, homedepot puts their fly trap shipment outdoors with the lids open, and that does help keep them fresher. Lowe’s doesn’t care where they go and who buys them, they are only there for the profit. The red one is a red piranha, they do give those out too, along with the akai ryu I’ve seen people ending up finding at a local hardware store. Like i said before, they’ll throw in extras to make up for the plants that they don’t have in stock.

Anyways, nice finds! Keep the forum updated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Greenleaf_999 wrote:

Fishkeeper wrote:

Greenleaf_999 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 07, 2024 4:46 pm Here is what I was referring to: https://www.bugbitingplants.com/venus_flytraps

They have all kinds of different cultivars.

I hope that answers hopefully most of your curiosity with these 3 interesting blends of flytraps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Aha, that would do it! That gets me a name for these red ones- the only full red, sawtooth-like plant they have is the Red Piranha. Interestingly, I don't see anything similar to a Moon Traps listed there. This can't possibly be an unrelated seed-grown mutation, right? They must have simply taken the listing down or not put it up?

Thanks for the link! How'd you figure out who they're owned by?

Many many years of experience with these plants. I was 5 years old when I got my first and I was a natural at growing these for awhile. That moon trap variety might me a sunburned/overheated or even a death cube plant that wilted. It should have more color, give it time, and try not to let it flower, it looks as if it might be trying to send up a "last resort" flower, to hopefully try and make seeds. Lowe’s isn’t known for keeping plants alive, neither is Home Depot, but as far as I know, homedepot puts their fly trap shipment outdoors with the lids open, and that does help keep them fresher. Lowe’s doesn’t care where they go and who buys them, they are only there for the profit. The red one is a red piranha, they do give those out too, along with the akai ryu I’ve seen people ending up finding at a local hardware store. Like i said before, they’ll throw in extras to make up for the plants that they don’t have in stock.

Anyways, nice finds! Keep the forum updated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Actually, that "moon trap" Lowe’s find is a very very light deprived fly trap, the new growth is tiny and the petioles are super wide. It might have color, but some of that stays after genetic modification in tissue culture. Just keep giving it good light and it will start producing new, regular functioning traps. It is a typical. And time is your only answer to truly find out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Greenleaf_999 wrote: Actually, that "moon trap" Lowe’s find is a very very light deprived fly trap, the new growth is tiny and the petioles are super wide. It might have color, but some of that stays after genetic modification in tissue culture. Just keep giving it good light and it will start producing new, regular functioning traps. It is a typical. And time is your only answer to truly find out.

It really doesn't look like any typical I've ever seen, light-deprived or no. None of the other plants with it (all presumably from the same conditions) looked quite like this, with these traps that are open so wide and are sort of concave in the centers. It's the shape of the traps that really has my attention, not so much the color. Is this something you've seen typicals do?

I'm going ahead and letting it flower, as it doesn't seem battered enough for that to kill it. It's putting on some new growth, albeit a bit slowly due to the flower stalk, so I suppose we'll see eventually one way or the other what its traps grow into.

Fishkeeper wrote:

Greenleaf_999 wrote: Actually, that "moon trap" Lowe’s find is a very very light deprived fly trap, the new growth is tiny and the petioles are super wide. It might have color, but some of that stays after genetic modification in tissue culture. Just keep giving it good light and it will start producing new, regular functioning traps. It is a typical. And time is your only answer to truly find out.

trap.png

trap2.png

It really doesn't look like any typical I've ever seen, light-deprived or no. None of the other plants with it (all presumably from the same conditions) looked quite like this, with these traps that are open so wide and are sort of concave in the centers. It's the shape of the traps that really has my attention, not so much the color. Is this something you've seen typicals do?

I'm going ahead and letting it flower, as it doesn't seem battered enough for that to kill it. It's putting on some new growth, albeit a bit slowly due to the flower stalk, so I suppose we'll see eventually one way or the other what its traps grow into.

I’ve seen them do this with an experiment I’ve done with a super bright 2700k warm white led bulb, they looked great at first, then the plants started pushing up smaller growth and started declining and growing slower, then it flowered. It was worth the experiment with more "red" leds , 2700k has more red, which is what any plant requires to bloom. It made the fly trap die at exactly 4 months 2 weeks and 3 days in. This plant resembles the "lab rat" I used back in 2018. 3500k works good for both but the plants lacked the deep red like I got with red/blue LEDs. 6500k made the plants look somewhat flimsy, and there wasn’t any noticeably "striking colors" like I was getting with the other red/blue lights that made many of the fly traps I cared about turn almost a deep purple. I have a picture of a b52 that started young and got extremely large with those blurple lights. That plant by the black tips in the first photo upon you receiving/bringing the plants home, it looks like it hasn’t seen the light in forever, and when they get bright light all of the sudden, they tend to die back and pout for a little bit. Then they will resume like nothing ever happened, and they will put out much more resilient/robust strong leaves and traps with more color. Give it time like I said, it should take some interesting work to make it look like a normal typical. light light light! i set my timers to 18 hours in the summer and 16 hours when fall starts to roll around, when it starts to get steadily cold i turn the lighting way down to 8 hours, to induce dormancy. bug biting plants has never tried to grow such a weird unusual cultivar. i have worked as an intern for them way back when i was out of school for the summer, it was like a dream but honestly, their plants look so much better in person than the way people actually receive them, they kinda rush packing because there are LARGE orders, all they can do is pray that they make it! most of the deliveries up north really weren't pretty once they showed up. it got put on back order by ups. ups couldn't do anything, it ended up falling back on us anyways, even though ups broke their time window and they payed for all the plants that made it 3 weeks later along with the "better" shipment. I've asked about weird mutated plants before, they only sell red, and plants with different cilia, and more normal fly traps, nothing too crazy.

so just a heads up. I have tons of experience and years of fun.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That one was indeed just your basic typical-shaped plant! Very interesting effect. Will try to remember to photograph tomorrow when the lights are back on; it's nothing too special, but has pink teeth on the most brightly-lit trap.

I wonder why it was shaped strangely while the others weren't? Maybe it was shaded at the grower's, or maybe it's a genetic thing that makes it more inclined to curve than others.

The Red Piranha is flowering now. I'm going to try to pollinate it and send the seeds to the seed bank, since I assume at least some of its seeds will result in red and/or sawtoothed plants.

Fishkeeper wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2024 3:51 pm It really doesn't look like any typical I've ever seen, light-deprived or no. None of the other plants with it (all presumably from the same conditions) looked quite like this, with these traps that are open so wide and are sort of concave in the centers. It's the shape of the traps that really has my attention, not so much the color. Is this something you've seen typicals do?

I've seen traps like this before, on plants that have spent too much time in "death cubes" at the store. These traps are worn-out and sprung-open. Their bug-catching days are over, and they're used for photosynthesis now. They'll die off and be replaced by normal, functioning traps.

MikeB wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 2:51 amI've seen traps like this before, on plants that have spent too much time in "death cubes" at the store. These traps are worn-out and sprung-open. Their bug-catching days are over, and they're used for photosynthesis now. They'll die off and be replaced by normal, functioning traps.

I could swear none of the couple dozen flytraps I kept before did this with worn-out traps. Do they only open quite that far when they're desperate for more light?

Fishkeeper wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 3:49 am I could swear none of the couple dozen flytraps I kept before did this with worn-out traps. Do they only open quite that far when they're desperate for more light?

None of my flytraps have ever done this, either. It has something to do with living in the death cubes for too long. I don't know if it's due to dim light, insufficient water, lack of air flow, or a combination of the above.

This is that definitely-not-a-Moon-Traps. Nice red teeth. The orange tint is a phone camera artifact not present in real life- the trap is pinkish-red in the center.