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Step 1
Locate a wild Venus Fly Trap in its small regional native habitat within a 100 mile radius of Wilmington, North Carolina. This southeast coastal plain of North and South Carolina is the only region in the world where Venus Fly Traps grow wild naturally. Within this small region, roughly 50 percent of those wild plants grow in the Holly Shelter Game Reserve.
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Step 2
Search within this region in wetland areas as well as sunny, humid and wet bogs. Wild Venus Fly Traps survive only in these conditions.
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Step 3
Look for a plant, whose leaves appear as a rosette and lie relatively close to the ground. A small group of pale flowers appears on the plant's slim stalk.
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Step 4
Examine the size and shape of the leaves. They grow four inches long and are divided into two parts. The bottom part resembles an ordinary, flat, broad leaf. The leaf's upper part is the trap which is rounded into two widely cupped parts. Along the edge of each upper part are 12 to 20 long, pointed "teeth."
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Step 5
Notice that in the center of the upper leaf's cup are small red spots with three stiff, upright hairs on each side.
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Step 6
Watch the plant when an insect touches these stiff hairs. The upper leaf cup snaps shut within about 10 seconds, trapping the insect inside. As the leaf snaps shut, the long teeth entwine together like fingers interlocking.
