How do carnivorous plants trap and digest their prey?

The answer

Over 800 carnivorous plant species use five main trapping mechanisms. Venus flytraps use snap traps that close in 100 milliseconds - among the fastest movements in the plant kingdom - triggered by prey touching two hair sensors within 20 seconds. Sundews employ sticky mucilage on tentacles that slowly curl around insects over hours. Pitcher plants like Nepenthes use slippery wax-coated pitfall traps containing digestive enzymes with a pH of 2, similar to stomach acid. Bladderworts (Utricularia) create underwater vacuum traps that suck in prey in under one millisecond. Most carnivorous plants evolved in nutrient-poor soils, supplementing nitrogen and phosphorus from prey rather than depending solely on soil.