The Venus flytrap was first formally described in 1768. English botanist John Ellis published the description and gave the plant its scientific name, Dionaea muscipula.
Ellis’s account appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. He had received information and specimens connected with the plant’s North American habitat and documented its remarkable ability to close around insects. The plant’s genus name, Dionaea, refers to Dione, a figure associated with Aphrodite in Greek mythology.
The species name muscipula is commonly explained as meaning “mousetrap,” although it has also been linked to an older Latin word for flytrap. Ellis’s publication helped establish the plant in European scientific literature at a time when carnivorous plants were not yet widely understood.
Charles Darwin later studied the Venus flytrap extensively and featured it in Insectivorous Plants, published in 1875. His experiments helped demonstrate that the plant actively captures and digests animal prey, rather than merely trapping insects by accident.