VIDEO North Carolina: Home to more Carnivorous Plants than anywhere on earth?

Yep. Thats right. North Carolina. What an interesting state ecologically. We seem to be host to a larger variety of caniverous plants than aynwhere on earth. Our plants are not even vegetarians!

More than anywhere on earth, you say, George?

It is hard to pin this claim down on the internet. After an exhaustive search last night I found a number of tantalizing hints, and near proclamations, to the veracity of this claim. Certainly, though, no other place in the world makes the claim. And the Old North State and our southern neighbor are mentioned more frequently than any other as the “hot spot” of plants that eat animals. We are home to more than two dozen meat eating species of plant, largely confined to the coastal swamps, Carolina bays and pocosins of southeastern North Carolina. Most experts ascribe the highly concentrated species here due to the nutrient poor, highly acidic nature of low grounds. More than 95% of the worlds most famous floral monsters — the Venus Fly Trap — occur within 75 miles of Wilmington, North Carolina. Cool.

I am embarassed to say, however, after years of casually keeping my eyes open for them, I have never come across a Fly Trap in my own home state. Sigh.