Learning about carnivorous plants can be fun. It can also be daunting. When describing carnivorous plants, physical structures, mechanisms, relationships with other organisms, etc, we can end up down a rabbit hole of botanical terminology. It’s a specialized language for describing specialized features, and for the uninitiated, it can sound like a foreign language. Throughout Carnivorous Plant Resource, I try to describe things in a simple manner, but I do occasionally leverage terminology pulled from the world of botany simply because it is succinct and the most accurate when you understand what all the big scary words actually mean.

To help clear up any confusion, here’s a list of botanical terms with definitions (click on an item to expand it) and clarifying imagery that I hope guides you through your journey into the fascinating world of carnivorous plants. If I’ve missed a term, please leave a comment and I’ll get it added! Also, consider bookmarking this page for quick reference in the future. You can click on any image to enlarge it.