NPS Photo Other Plants Moores Creek National Battlefield is home to many other unique and interesting plants.
The Venus flytrap is a carnivorous plant that grows on the East Coast of the United States, including North Carolina. Once the fly trap's prey lands in the trap, the plant's trapping structure is activated (trigger hairs on the inside of the plant) and the animal becomes trapped and then becomes food for the plant. When the plant's prey contacts a hair, the trap starts closing, snapping shut only if another contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds of the first strike. The Venus Fly Trap is an endangered species in its native range, including at Moores Creek National Battlefield. While we often have the image of a Venus fly trap as a larger plant, the ones growing here are much smaller.
We find one of the earliest descriptions of the plant in a letter from April 2, 1759 from North Carolina colonial governor, Arthur Dobbs, to English botanist Peter Collinson. Dobbs wrote: "We have a kind of Catch Fly Sensitive which closes upon anything that touches it. It grows in Latitude 34 but not in 35. I will try to save the seed here." The plant must have continued to fascinate Dobbs because he wrote Collinson again, less than a year later from Brunswick, North Carolina, January 24, 1760. "The great wonder of the vegetable kingdom is a very curious unknown species of Sensitive. It is a dwarf plant. The leaves are like a narrow segment of a sphere, consisting of two parts, like the cap of a spring purse, the concave part outwards, each of which falls back with indented edges (like an iron spring fox-trap); upon anything touching the leaves, or falling between them, they instantly close like a spring trap, and confine any insect or anything that falls between them. It bears a white flower. To this surprising plant I have given the name of Fly trap Sensitive." — Arthur Dobbs The Venus fly trap continues to face many obstacles today, one of which is human encroachment. Remaining extant populations of fly traps exist in North Carolina in Beaufort, Craven, Pamlico, Carteret, Jones, Onslow, Duplin, Pender, New Hanover, Brunswick, Columbus, Bladen, Sampson, Cumberland, and Hoke counties, and in South Carolina in Horry county. As of 2016, there were 71 known sites where the plant could be found in the wild. Of these 71 sites, only 20 were classified as having excellent or good long-term viability. Humans have to do their part as well to make sure that these plants stay protected. Additionally, fly traps thrive in an area that see annual prescribed burns. Although flytraps and their seeds are typically killed alongside their competition in fires, seeds from flytraps adjacent to the burnt zone propagate quickly in the ash and full sun conditions that occur post a fire disturbance. Sundew are the only remaining carnivorous plant in the park’s savanna. Sundew prefer habitat along coastal wetlands, and can be found in drier spots of the savanna. This plant is sticky, which is how it catches its prey. Once something sticks, the sundew curls its leaves to trap insects near its digestive area.
Devil’s walking stick is easily identified by its sharp spines on the leaf midrib, stem, and branches. Although painful to touch, this plant attracts butterflies and other insects, songbirds, and small mammals with its fruit. Devil’s walking stick is common near forest edges, and can be seen all along the tar heel trail.
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Last updated: July 30, 2021