# Why VENUS flytrap? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 24, 2015, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712 "2015-08-24T12:47:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/1 "2015-08-24T12:47:59Z")
Why is a Venus flytrap a VENUS flytrap? There is nothing about a bug-eating plant that makes me look at it and think “oh, yes, Roman goddess of love!”. Seriously, these things are small, but their traps look downright sinister, like little vegetable mouths (which they are, in a sense. They’re also stomachs.) So how/why did they get the “Venus” in their names. Wasn’t “flytrap” good enough on its own? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/2 "2015-08-24T12:52:33Z")
Ya got me. I’m still trying to understand why they had _Venus Paradise_ Coloring Sets when I was kid [https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;\_ylt=A0LEVy5VE9tVVKsAf8dXNyoA;\_ylu=X3oDMTEyb2hkZnQ4BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjAzNjdfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=Venus+Paradise+Color+By+Number+Sets&fr=yfp-t-412-s#id=9&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimg0.etsystatic.com%2F000%2F0%2F6586093%2Fil\_570xN.294173564.jpg&action=click](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0LEVy5VE9tVVKsAf8dXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyb2hkZnQ4BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjAzNjdfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=Venus+Paradise+Color+By+Number+Sets&fr=yfp-t-412-s#id=9&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimg0.etsystatic.com%2F000%2F0%2F6586093%2Fil_570xN.294173564.jpg&action=click) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/3 "2015-08-24T12:52:39Z")
Wikipedia [is a bit obtuse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_flytrap#Etymology), but if it already had a common name that is somewhat venereally related, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to just name it after Venus. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/4 "2015-08-24T13:03:36Z")
_ **Speculation in GQ:** _ From **Ludovic** ’s [Wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_flytrap#Etymology) > [@](#): > > Historically, the plant was also known by the slang term “tipitiwitchet” or “tippity twitchet”, possibly an oblique reference to the plant’s resemblance to human female genitalia. I had always assumed it was a [Vagina Dentata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagina_dentata) joke. Not that Venus/Aphrodite was ever said to have had a vagina dentata, but simply evoking the name of the goddess of love rather than going straight to a more literally vaginal name which might have seemed too lowbrow for the scholarly botanical community. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/5 "2015-08-24T13:24:30Z")
Silly me having missed all of the vagina inferences. I assumed it was named for the planet. The alien planet. You know: not of this Earth; some strange extraterrestrial thing that is unlike other plants. I guess it comes from having seen an off-off-off-Broadway “Little Shop of Horrors” at the community theater when I was quite young. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/6 "2015-08-24T13:27:31Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I assumed it was named for the planet. The alien planet. You know: not of this Earth; some strange extraterrestrial thing that is unlike other plants. This is the name origin for the DJ of the same name from WKRP in Cincinnati. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/7 "2015-08-24T15:19:13Z")
Perhaps the Lorelei Flytrap would have been more appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/8 "2015-08-24T15:25:25Z")
> [@](#): > > possibly an oblique reference to the plant’s resemblance to human female genitalia. Ack! Somehow I made it past 50 years without ever noticing the very long teeth surrounding my wide open vagina or how it tends to snap shut when things come near. :rolleyes: I sense a tinge of misogyny in this description… ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/9 "2015-08-24T15:31:13Z")
Obviously the plants come from Venus. Just look at them. We’re lucky they don’t grow to enormous size in earth’s atmosphere and take over the Roman Coliseum. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/10 "2015-08-24T15:41:49Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > Ack! Somehow I made it past 50 years without ever noticing the very long teeth surrounding my wide open vagina or how it tends to snap shut when things come near. :rolleyes: > > I sense a tinge of misogyny in this description… If you think the poster here was being misogynous I think your perception is clouded and you’re seeing it peeking out from under too many bushes. If you think 18th century Victorian scientists & natural philosophers lived and breathed what we today would call 180-plus proof level misogyny, you’re on real solid ground. I couldn’t tell which you meant from your post. But I’m overly literal sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/11 "2015-08-24T15:45:37Z")
Didn’t the plant tend to grow in swampy meteor impact craters? Leading to theories it was not of this earth? I thought that was where the Venus thing came from, because before modern astronomy Venus was assumed to be a humid swampy planet. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/12 "2015-08-24T15:57:58Z")
The scientific name of the plant, _Dionaea_, refers to the Greek goddess of beauty, Aphrodite, and the equivalent of Venus in Roman mythology. Ostensibly, this is in reference to the plant’s [beautiful white flowers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Dionaea_muscipula_flower_1-2.jpg), according to the description by John Ellis in 1768: > [@](#): > > “…and from the beautiful Appearance of its Milk-white Flowers, and the Elegance of its Leaves, thought it well deserved one of the Names of the Goddess of Beauty, and therefore called it Dionaea.” However, according to [this](http://www.sarracenia.com/faq/faq2880.html), this was a cover story, and the name actually does refer to the similarity of the appearance of the leaves to female genitalia. This would not be the only instance of scientists naming organisms because of their resemblance to human genitalia, others being the flower [_Clitoria_](http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/Resources/Systematics/Magnoliophyta/Magnoliopsida/Fabales/Fabaceae/Clitoria/Clitoria%20flower%20RK%20.jpg.html) and the penis worm [_Priapulus_.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Priapulus_caudatus.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/13 "2015-08-24T15:58:30Z")
Certain areas of South Carolina, actually. 🙂 Richard Wagner was going to name the abode of Venus in his opera \*Tannhauser \* “The Mound of Venus”, but one of his drinking buddies, a med student, remarked that might not be a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/14 "2015-08-24T16:01:10Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Perhaps the Lorelei Flytrap would have been more appropriate. Not sure. How many flies did Lorelei trap and eat anyway? _Those Halloween episodes of Gilmore Girls must have been down-right Grim_ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/15 "2015-08-24T16:01:31Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Didn’t the plant tend to grow in swampy meteor impact craters? Leading to theories it was not of this earth? No. It was named in the 1700s, before people really understood that meteorites could produce impact craters. Although it grows in swampy areas, these are not meteorite craters. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/16 "2015-08-24T16:03:16Z")
It was actually “Venus Rising”. Andy Travis misheard it as “Venus Flytrap” and it stuck. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/17 "2015-08-24T16:07:28Z")
According to OED, there were many other plants named after Venus before the flytrap, and few seem to have anything to do with the vagina (some even predate the term “vagina”\*). \*In its current meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/18 "2015-08-24T16:12:39Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > No. It was named in the 1700s, before people really understood that meteorites could produce impact craters. Although it grows in swampy areas, these are not meteorite craters. The Carolina Bays are not impact craters. That was an old hypothesis, largely disproved. The last I had heard, we’re still not quite sure how they formed. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/19 "2015-08-24T16:36:58Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > The Carolina Bays are not impact craters. That was an old hypothesis, largely disproved. The last I had heard, we’re still not quite sure how they formed. By Dionaea muscipula, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712/20 "2015-08-24T17:03:55Z")
I can just picture millions of these little plants, tirelessly digging out these shallow, oval depressions throughout Eastern North Carolina with their little jaws. All under the gaze of Audrey 2, who is thinking, “This’ll keep those geologists baffled.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-venus-flytrap/728712.md?page=2)