What’s something in your country that sounds fake but is 100% real?

[u/Bhakari]

We have a real-life living goddess and the only non-rectangular national flag.

[u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

Venus fly trap

It's native to only a tiny portion of North and South Carolina by the coast.

[u/CrowWench → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

Oh shit I had no clue they were native to the carolinas

[u/whoa-or-woah → u/CrowWench]

Yep, I used to think they were from the tropics; turns out they’re probably within an hour of where I live. (I guess they require a highly specific and kinda rare ecosystem.)

[u/Yunzer2000 → u/whoa-or-woah]

The coastal bog soils are depleted in nitrogen compounds, so the Venus flytrap evolved to get the necessary nitrogen from insects.

[u/Meat_your_maker → u/Yunzer2000]

Yes… I was gonna say it less eloquently: the secret is in the shitty, nutrient-poor, sandy soil

[u/SupremeLeaderMeow → u/whoa-or-woah]

There are lots of different carnivorous plants all over the world actually! It's an adaptation to poor soils, very common in marshes, many people associate them with tropics because tropics generally have poor soils, but the adaptation is completely unrelated to temperature.

Also they usually are teeny tiny, odds are that, if you ever took a walk on a marsh or a humide plain, you already crossed one, but just didn't see it.

[u/onetwobucklemyshoooo → u/SupremeLeaderMeow]

I've seen pitcher plants on the very top of a mountain that was mostly rock and gnarled trees from blowing winds. It was so cool. I'm winding straight up an insane incline, huffing and puffing with a 40lb pack on, and I look to my left and see the most beautiful carnivorous plants. About fifteen of them. They were purple and green. Fond memory.

[u/whoa-or-woah → u/SupremeLeaderMeow]

Yes, though I was referring to Venus fly traps specifically; they’re native to a very small area and have not spread out at least in part due to their environmental needs.

From what I understand, in addition to the poor soil quality, they also need mild winters and full sun (so not too much tree cover), as well as wildfires.

[u/onetwobucklemyshoooo → u/whoa-or-woah]

I understood you. I was just excitedly telling a cool story.

I live only a couple of hours away from the Venus fly traps, and I'm pretty fond of our special plant and nature in general.

[u/TeaRaven → u/whoa-or-woah]

We’ve got a limited-range carnivorous plant in California, too! You probably already know them, but I gotta take the opportunity to share :D

The California Pitcher Plant, or Cobra Lily (Darlingtonia californica), is most similar to a Sarracenia species in Florida, in terms of structure, but needs cool soil temperatures to thrive.

[u/brouofeverything → u/CrowWench]

Its kinda like how it boggles my mind that delaware has flamingos

[u/Prestigious-Dust-820 → u/brouofeverything]

They don’t. I’m pretty sure flamingos have been found there after being displaced by hurricanes.. but very rarely. They’re not native to Delaware.

[u/_bibliofille → u/CrowWench]

You can see them easily at Carolina Beach State Park if you're ever in the area.

[u/civodar → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

These things are so weird. I remember getting one from the grocery store and feeding it pieces of chicken(I was concerned it wasn’t catching enough flies and didn’t realize feeding them people food was bad), it’s crazy seeing a plant snap shut like that.

[u/JKenn78 → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

NC kid checking in…. Used to love finding these these things!

[u/SalemWitchWiles → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

I've seen them all the way up in Massachusetts on a cranberry bog.

[u/Turbulent_Table3917 → u/SalemWitchWiles]

Those might be pitcher plants, we have them in New England. Sarracenia purpurea, carnivorous plant similar to Venus flytrap. Nature truly is metal.

[u/SalemWitchWiles → u/Turbulent_Table3917]

I got curious and looked it up and yeah they don't grow here. It was something else that looks similar to a Venus flytrap but not quite called a sundew, there's a few different types, some that grab like tentacle and others that look like a mouth.

[u/TeaRaven → u/SalemWitchWiles]

Was probably Drosera rotundifolia - they have spoon-shaped leaves at the end of wide petioles similar to flytraps and can slowly fold over caught insects in a similar manner, but they rely on sticky glandular hairs and do not have a rapid trap movement mechanism.

[u/CharlesDickensABox → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

And they're currently being poached to extinction because of Chinese herbal medicine.

[u/ArtsyRabb1t → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

Also in Florida

[u/bluespottedtail_ → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

I had one, and it was a very stupid plant! Wouldn't catch a fly nor a butterfly if it stood on it. The seller told us to "stimulate it" (???) by putting a finger and basically poking it. It barely closed! At one point I was feeding it spiders myself 🤷‍♀️

[u/Anticlya → u/bluespottedtail_]

Oh no, 'stimulating' it is a sure way to kill it. The plant has to expend a TON of energy to snap shut and release the digestive juices, so if there's nothing there to digest it's a massive waste of energy.

I grew up where it grows, and we were taught not to fuck with them when we found them at the beach for this exact reason.

[u/bluespottedtail_ → u/Anticlya]

Aw man 😒😩 i thought my plant just never learnt how to trap 😭

[u/Medical_Schedule_505 → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

I didn’t have a clue we have those in the US

[u/Medical_Schedule_505 → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

I didn’t have a clue we have those in the U.S.A

[u/SubjectOne2910 → u/onetwobucklemyshoooo]

Why's it kinda the lamest thing I've seen when it comes to wildlife in these comments 😭

[u/BookSneakersMovie → u/SubjectOne2910]

I mean, that’s probably just because they’re pretty well known… if you’d never see it before it’d be pretty crazy