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Flytrap life expectancy

if a venus flytrap is well cared for, how long can you expect it to live? what about the other cp's (butterworts, sundews, etc) for that matter?
 
VFT's I think can live for ?...They just keep on making divisions and so on, so the plant never dies really...
 
I read that it can live for 25 years...if it is cared for properly and given dormancy every year.
So far my oldest VFT is 4yrs old... but I read that someone has one that is 30 yrs old.
 
I believe Bugweed has a decades old plant.
 
Right Jim!! 29 years old this year. Bob Z. has had his VFT since 1955, so don't believe Peter D'Amato's guess of 2 or 3 decades. So far as I know, no one has outlived a heathy specimen yet!
 
Bug, got a pic of that and how big are the traps?
The longest my first trap lived for was 5 years..and that was with NO DORMANCY!
 
Once the VFT plant reaches maturity in about 3 years, the size of the traps do not continue to get larger as the plant gets older. In fact, the individual plant itself does not get larger. In late winter, the mature VFT begins to produce multiple growing points and by spring the rhizome (bulb) will divide naturally. If not separated, this will result in a clump of closely spaced, genetically identical plants (clones). Thus, when someone states that they have a 25- or 50-year-old VFT plant, that means that they have maintained that clone for that length of time. In other words, the plant is genetically identical to the plant that they started with.
 
<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>The vast majority of CP are perennials. Which means that given a suitable environment they can live practically forever. What usually kills them are secondary infections of fungus or bacteria, or both, after having been subjected to unusual stress from environmental factors, including attack by various plant pests. These stresses can often be quite subtle and not easily recognized, though even unnoticed they can leave the equivalent of open wounds which infectious organisms can exploit to damage or destroy our most precious plants. Propagation is the tool I use to help avert total loss of prized clones. By propagating (asexually or sexually, as appropriate) as often as practical, I assure that if one representative plant has a problem and expires, I have others, propagated earlier, who can take its place.</span>
 
  • #10
I still have first on since 1979, and it produces 2" traps with regularity..however its now 6 plants and quite a few people in the UK has it.
 
  • #11
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Bugweed @ Mar. 24 2004,06:00)]Right Jim!! 29 years old this year. Bob Z. has had his VFT since 1955, so don't believe Peter D'Amato's guess of 2 or 3 decades. So far as I know, no one has outlived a heathy specimen yet!
i think he traded that one to goldtrap, or a division at least
 
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