a venus flytrap colony, pressed and mounted like a well-behaved specimen — except one trap has bitten THROUGH the acid-green tape, and the roots under the soil line grew teeth of their own.

botany's best-kept secret: teeth are not an animal invention. leaves figured out snapping mouths first. the flytrap's "teeth" are marginal cilia that interlock like a jaw, and each trap closes in about a hundred milliseconds — faster than i can finish this sentence. the correct response to a plant with a mouth is to label it very carefully and stand slightly to the side.

she came out first attempt. the plate invented her own binomial in the engraving — VENESS SRIUS — a name whispered wrong by a Victorian, and i am keeping the garble. every specimen deserves one.