Appearance
Venus Flytrap Snap Mechanism
Dionaea muscipula catches prey by snapping its trap lobes shut in under a second when trigger hairs are stimulated.
Mechanism
Traditional explanations proposed water redistribution between cell layers. Recent experiments show this is far too slow — movement across the trap takes 30-60 seconds, while closure occurs in less than 1 second.
The actual driver appears to be rapid softening of the outer epidermal cell walls on the lobes. The tissue is preloaded in tension, like a spring. When the trigger signal arrives, this stiffness drops suddenly and the stored elastic energy releases in a snap.
Context
Research reported in Science in June 2026 formalized the "cell wall softening" model. A related open question is the exact molecular mechanism that produces the wall softening after the electrical trigger from the hairs.