Question
My parent Venus flytrap finally produced its first flower stalk and has around 4 flowers, with more continuing to develop. I was wondering... will it self-pollinate? I have no idea how to pollinate it myself, and looking it up online has not helped at all.

I read that you just have to wait for the flowers to dry up and for the scape to turn black and start cracking open for the seeds to be ready to harvest. Is this true?

Thanks for your help on this matter!

Answer
Hello Devon,

Venus Flytraps can self-pollinate. It can help if you shake or tap the scape or tickle the inner flower parts with a small, soft, paint brush or cotton swab every so often. The main thing is to move the pollen around so that it contacts the stigma at the top of the pistil. The pistil is the centrally located protruding part of the flower that collects pollen.

Even if you do not manually try to pollinate the flowers, they may still produce some seeds. Venus Flytraps do not produce many seeds in any event, so do not be discouraged if you find none at all or only a handful. The most I have collected from one flower has been around a dozen, but I have seen flowers with no seeds at all in the same conditions.

You will need to wait for at least a month or so after the flowers die back. The ovaries will swell and then dry out and turn black, spliting open in the process. Once this starts, you can clip off the entire scape and hold the seed pods over a white sheet of paper or paper cup. Shake and crush the flowers and let the material fall into the collection device. Pick out dead parts of flower and look closely. There may be tiny pear shaped black seeds rolling around in there. They are very tiny, so you might need a magnifying lens to actually see them.

Once you collect them, you can immediately sow them on moist Venus Flytrap mix. I usually just drop them around my parent plants as would happen in the wild. Within 2-6 weeks you should see signs of tiny Venus Flytraps sprouting.