The Main Types of Carnivorous Plants

There are over 450 species of carnivorous plants in the world

Pitcher Plants

Pitcher plants are a group of carnivorous plants with leaves that have evolved into a funnel in order to trap insects, and which produce enzymes to digest their prey. The prey "trips" on the slippery rims of the leaf and fall into the cavity. The two large common groups of pitcher plants are Nepenthes and Sarracenia.

Nepenthes

Nepenthes are often called Tropical Plants or Monkey Cups. They hang on vanes, unlike Sarracenias, which are planted directly to the ground. There are around 120 species of pitcher plants in this group, ranging from South China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Sarracenia

Unlike Nepenthese, Sarracenia leaves are planted directly to the ground. There are 9 species of pitcher plants in this group, indigenous to the eastern seaboard, Texas, the Great Lakes area and southeastern Canada, with most species occurring only in the south-east United States.
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Sundews

The Sundews (Drosera) comprise one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants, with over 170 species. These members of the family Droseraceae lure, capture, and digest insects using stalked mucilaginous glands covering their leaf surface. Various species, which vary greatly in size and form, can be found growing natively on every continent except Antarctica.

The genus can be divided into several growth forms:

• Temperate Sundews
• Pygmy Sundews
• Tuberous Sundews
• Petiolaris Complex

Although they do not form a single strictly defined growth form, a number of species are often put together in a further group:

• Queensland Sundews

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Venus flytraps

The venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant that uses the snap trap mechansim. Each stem has a leaf that folds when the triggers are touched. The plant's common name refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, whereas the genus name refers to Dione.

Though the venus flytrap is a single species and not a genus, there are many hybrids and colors that the plant is classified to. The "Red Dragon" is the most common, which is completely red with no pales of green. Other hybrids include the yellow flytrap, the green flytrap, and the dente flytrap.
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Butterworts and Bladderworts

Though the names sound alike, butterworts and bladderworts contrast.

Butterworts

The butterworts are a group of carnivorous plants comprising the genus Pinguicula. Members of this genus use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition they obtain from the environments. Of the roughly 80 currently known species, 12 are native to Europe, 9 to North America, and the rest are found in northern Asia, South and Central America and southern Mexico.
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Bladderworts

The bladderwort is the largest genus in the carnivorous plants family. It consists around 215 species. All bladderworts live either underwater or in very moist conditions. Similar to venus flytraps, they use a trigger-and-suck trap mechanism. The trap is shaped like a bladder, which has trigger veins connected to the trap-door of the trap. When touched, the "bladder" sucks in the prey. The traps are small and feed on minute prey such as protozoa and rotifers swimming in water-saturated soil. However, in aquatic species such as the Common Bladderwort U. vulgaris, the bladders are large (sometimes exceeding 5 mm in diameter[citation needed]) and can feed on more substantial prey such as water fleas, nematodes and even fish fry, mosquito larvae and young tadpoles.
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