• This Venus flytrap gets nutrients by digesting insects.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) grows along the coasts of North and South Carolina. This plant needs humid, wet and sunny bogs for optimal growth. It is insectivorous (carnivorous) because its leaves form a trap that catches insects. The leaves secrete a sweet nectar, and insects enter the trap looking for food. When they walk on trigger hairs within the trap, it closes and catches the insect. However, the Venus fytrap gets nutrition from three sources including insects.
  
  

Nutrients From Photosynthesis

• Photosynthesis is a process in which plants use energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide (taken from the air) and water into starches and sugar. These starches and sugars give the plant energy for growth and development.
  
  

Nutrients From Soil

• The acidic soil in the bog provides the Venus flytrap with a limited amount of nutrients. It provides the macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, sulfur, calcium, and magnesium, It also provides the micronutrients iron, cobalt, chromium, copper, iodine, manganese, selenium, zinc and molybdenum. Additionally, the Venus flytrap gets limited amino acids from organic matter while growing in bog soil.
  
  

Nutrients from Insects

• The Venus flytraps must get some of its nutrients from the insects it captures since bog soil is acidic and the minerals and amino acids are more scare than in other soil types. This is why most plants cannot survive in bogs. The Venus flytrap is able to get very important macronutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus, by digesting insects. Additionally, it extracts amino acids from insects. The leaves of the trap produce acidic juices that digest the insect and extract nutrients for the plant. The insect's exoskeleton is blown or washed away. The Venus flytrap reabsorbs the digestive juices and the trap opens for the next insect.