# Was the Venus flytrap brought to earth by a meteor?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-venus-flytrap-brought-to-earth-by-a-meteor/791870>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [July 22, 2017, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-venus-flytrap-brought-to-earth-by-a-meteor/791870 "2017-07-22T08:12:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-venus-flytrap-brought-to-earth-by-a-meteor/791870/1 "2017-07-22T08:12:44Z")

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[Link to Staff Report.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2054/was-the-venus-flytrap-brought-to-earth-by-a-meteor)

Doug comments: There are no scientists puzzled about the Venus flytrap, only “scientists.”

Brilliant and well worth stealing!

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**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-venus-flytrap-brought-to-earth-by-a-meteor/791870/2 "2017-07-22T12:38:59Z")

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There are no scientists disputing anthropogenic global warming, only “scientists.” Love it. 😃

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-venus-flytrap-brought-to-earth-by-a-meteor/791870/3 "2017-07-22T13:50:43Z")

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The staff report could have elaborated more. It was correct that that Dionaea is related to Drosera. It was right about the “hair trigger” mechanism for closing. But it was wrong about Venus Flytraps being found “throughout North and South Carolina”, but are instead found along a small strip of coastal counties of both states.

The real shortcoming of the answer, though, is not getting into why there was a rumor that Venus Flytraps were found in an old meteorite crater. Those mentioned bogs in South and North Carolina are called “[Carolina Bays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_bay)” and are shallow, oval depressions that exist in the thousands but weren’t even discovered until after the invention of airplanes, when they could be seen from above. Some people for a while after discovery speculated that they bays could be meteorite craters, but modern understanding of how meteorite craters form and what they look like (i.e. almost always circular except for very, very shallow entry angles) have debunked that as bunk.

(My credentials on this–years of being a meteorite collector, carnivorous plant collector, and South Carolina liver-inner.)

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**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-venus-flytrap-brought-to-earth-by-a-meteor/791870/4 "2017-07-26T19:28:55Z")

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> [@aldiboronti](#):
>
> Doug comments: There are no scientists puzzled about the Venus flytrap, only “scientists.”

The difference is that a scientist, as opposed to a “scientist”, is aware that the name “Venus flytrap” does not actually indicate the plant’s place of origin.