Smooth or with a Snap! Biomechanics of Trap Reopening in the Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)

Fast snapping in the carnivorous Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) involvestrap lobe bending and abrupt curvature inversion (snap-buckling), but how dothese traps reopen? Here, the trap reopening mechanics in two differentD.muscipulaclones, producing normal-sized (N traps, max.≈3 cm in length)and large traps (L traps, max.≈4.5 cm in length) are investigated. Time-lapseexperiments reveal that both N and L traps can reopen by smooth andcontinuous outward lobe bending, but only L traps can undergo smoothbending followed by a much faster snap-through of the lobes. Additionally, Ltraps can reopen asynchronously, with one of the lobes moving before theother. This study challenges the current consensus on trap reopening, whichdescribes it as a slow, smooth process driven by hydraulics and cell growthand/or expansion. Based on the results gained via three-dimensional digitalimage correlation (3D-DIC), morphological and mechanical investigations, thedifferences in trap reopening are proposed to stem from a combination of sizeand slenderness of individual traps. This study elucidates trap reopeningprocesses in the (in)famousDionaeasnap traps – unique shape-shiftingstructures of great interest for plant biomechanics, functional morphology,and applications in biomimetics, i.e., soft robotics.     «

Fast snapping in the carnivorous Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) involvestrap lobe bending and abrupt curvature inversion (snap-buckling), but how dothese traps reopen? Here, the trap reopening mechanics in two differentD.muscipulaclones, producing normal-sized (N traps, max.≈3 cm in length)and large traps (L traps, max.≈4.5 cm in length) are investigated. Time-lapseexperiments reveal that both N and L traps can reopen by smooth andcontinuous outward lobe bending, but only L traps can undergo...     »