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Noticed new trait on misc. VFT.. ID Please

Not sure if this is indicative to a particular cross of VFT, but I noticed the teeth point out on the traps rather than crossing when closed. Is it significant?

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What Presto said! It's normal Mass.
 
That pic was taken about 1 min. after I fed it. Just a moment after the trap closed, so these teeth never crossed.
 
What about the other traps on the plant?
 
It does indicate something! :0o:
Sadly...
as far as the plant is concerned, it's normal behavior! :gulp: Burp! :-))

No new and rare breed of VFT here! (Hard to I.D. the plant without photos of the plant itself, but I am guessing it is a commoner'! )

(Oh, has it caught other prey and doing some digesting recently?, as that would tend to shape some of the traps* this way for their "next" meal... hence no teeth crossing!)

*When the traps get older and after a few meals, they sometimes don't come back to shape and so retain this teeth-outward appearance. Usually by then, they get slow or do not close at all anymore. Apparently yours is still hungry and responsive!

I am surprised you haven't seen this behavior before, as it is rather common.
:water:
 
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I am surprised you haven't seen this behavior before, as it is rather common.
:water:

I'm still VERY new to VFTs. I just adopted about 3 trays full of different kinds. So far I've been able to separate them into 6 or 7 different kinds, but I just don't know what kind that may be. With the exception of saw tooths. Those are pretty obvious.
 
Haha! I almost thought you were trying to be funny.


But it doesn't seem like you are. It's most likely just the completely normal behavior of a venus fly trap that the majority of us have witnessed hundreds of times.

Unless, that is of course, you'd be willing to take a detailed pictorial showing a specific trap grow all the way out and exhibiting that behavior immediately after it closes on it's first prey, and I mean immediately.
 
THAT'S WHAT THIS ONE DID!! I swear.. I was feeding Box Elder bugs to all my newly aquired VFTs, I stuck one in there, it snapped close, and I noticed the fingers didn't cross like on all the others. So I thought,"Hey, maybe that'll tell me what kind it is." I raced here, made a post, and everyone made fun of me for having a HUGE collection and not knowing jack about VFT's. lol
They literally were the last CP I ever obtained. I even had Byblis before I had VFTs.
 
  • #10
This is referred to in literature as type or phase two closure. The margins of the leaf curl out that way to form a good seal so that the digestive fluids do not leak out. Phase two closure usually will only occur when there is sufficient stimuli such as prey continuing to move within the trap.
 
  • #11
This is referred to in literature as type or phase two closure. The margins of the leaf curl out that way to form a good seal so that the digestive fluids do not leak out.

hmm.. thanks for teaching me my "learned something new".. I have one of those everyday! :-D
 
  • #12
newly acquired i believe is the key to this mystery....
often times, flytraps (especially this late in the season) are beginning to slow down for winter growth, and older traps who have been sprung a few times already, are not the way they "should be"....
as light decreases, and temperatures drop as well, they lose much of the vigour exhibited during late spring and through summer....and to add on, it was just brought into a new home...
more than likely, at the turn around of next growing season, the plants will resume the normal habit of crossing the teeth before forming a seal...
i will add in, what i see in the photo on the main leaf, is a bit of a fringed edge, which can show a lack of light, IE etiolation, which isnt all too uncommon for young plants, or even plants getting ready for dormancy which still had a few leaves to push out....
 
  • #13
I have noticed a difference in the shapes of some of the leaves on differing plants. Are there certain species that can be I.D.'ed by their leaf shape? I just hate having 2 trays of VFTs and only knowing what the SawTooths are.
 
  • #14
Unless, that is of course, you'd be willing to take a detailed pictorial showing a specific trap grow all the way out and exhibiting that behavior immediately after it closes on it's first prey, and I mean immediately.

THAT'S WHAT THIS ONE DID!! I swear..

Sorry, but no, thats not what it did..
what you have there is an elderly trap..probably several weeks old at least,
maybe even a month old, that has already closed several times, and the teeth are permanently bent in this "outward" position, they no longer curl inwards like a younger trap..

so yes, as everyone has said, its very normal and commonl! ;)

Scot
 
  • #15
I have noticed a difference in the shapes of some of the leaves on differing plants. Are there certain species that can be I.D.'ed by their leaf shape? I just hate having 2 trays of VFTs and only knowing what the SawTooths are.

there is only a single species of Dionaea, Travis...so no, no "species" can be identified by their leaves....
there are a few cultivars which can however (and that is only by the traps themselves usually)
I.E, cupped traps, wacky traps, fused petiole, dentate traps, or any cultivar with a specific easily recognized trap mutation, but again there is only a single species of dionaea, much like cephalotus which you are familiar with...several cultivars under a single species...
 
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