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Samson
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This article is about the biblical figure. For other uses, see Samson (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Sampson, Sanson, or Samsun.
Samson
Samson's Fight with the Lion (1525) by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Resting place
Tel Tzora, Brook of Sorek
Predecessor
Abdon
Successor
Eli
Parents
Manoah (father)
not named (mother)
שופטים
Judges in the Bible
Italics indicate individuals not explicitly described as judges
Book of Joshua
Joshua
Book of Judges
Othniel
Ehud
Shamgar
Deborah
Gideon
Abimelech
Tola
Jair
Jephthah
Ibzan
Elon
Abdon
Samson
First Book of Samuel
Eli
Samuel
v
t
e
Samson (/ˈsæmsən/; שִׁמְשׁוֹן, Shimshon, "man of the sun")[1][a] was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last of the leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution of the monarchy. He is sometimes considered to be an Israelite version of the popular Near Eastern folk hero also embodied by the Sumerian Enkidu and the Greek Heracles.
The biblical account states that Samson was a Nazirite, and that he was given immense strength to aid him against his enemies and allow him to perform superhuman feats,[2] including slaying a lion with his bare hands and massacring an entire army of Philistines using only the jawbone of a donkey. However, if Samson's long hair was cut, then his Nazirite vow would be violated and he would lose his strength.[3]
Samson was betrayed by his lover Delilah, who ordered a servant to cut his hair while he was sleeping and turned him over to his Philistine enemies, who gouged out his eyes and forced him to grind grain in a mill at Gaza. When the Philistines took Samson into their temple of Dagon, Samson asked to rest against one of the support pillars; after being granted permission, he prayed to God and miraculously recovered his strength, allowing him to grasp hold of the columns and tear them down, killing himself and all the Philistines with him. In some Jewish traditions, Samson is believed to have been buried in Tel Tzora in Israel overlooking the Sorek valley.
Samson has been the subject of both rabbinic and Christian commentary, with some Christians viewing him as a type of Jesus, based on similarities between their lives. Notable depictions of Samson include John Milton's closet drama Samson Agonistes and Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 Hollywood film Samson and Delilah. Samson also plays a major role in Western art and traditions.
Contents
1 Biblical narrative
1.1 Birth
1.2 Marriage to a Philistine
1.3 Delilah
1.4 Death
2 Religious interpretations
2.1 Rabbinic literature
2.2 Christian interpretations
3 Scholarly interpretations
4 Cultural influence
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
Biblical narrative[edit]
Birth[edit]
See also: Nazirite
The Sacrifice of Manoah (1640-1650) by Eustache Le Sueur
According to the account in the Book of Judges, Samson lived during a time of repeated conflict between Israel and Philistia, when God was disciplining the Israelites by giving them "into the hand of the Philistines".[4] Manoah was an Israelite from Zorah, descended from the Danites,[5] and his wife had been unable to conceive.[6][7] The Angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife and proclaimed that the couple would soon have a son who would begin to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines.[8]
The Angel of the Lord stated that Manoah's wife was to abstain from all alcoholic drinks, and her promised child was not to shave or cut his hair. He was to be a Nazirite from birth. In ancient Israel, those wanting to be especially dedicated to God for a time could take a Nazirite vow which included abstaining from wine and spirits, not cutting hair or shaving, and other requirements.[6][7][8] The wife believed the Angel of the Lord; her husband was not present, so he prayed and asked God to send the messenger once again to teach them how to raise the boy who was going to be born.
After the Angel of the Lord returned, Manoah asked him his name, but he said, "Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding."[9] Manoah then prepared a sacrifice, but the Angel of the Lord would only allow it to be for God. He touched it with his staff, miraculously engulfing it in flames, and then ascended into the sky in the fire. This was such dramatic evidence of the nature of the Messenger that Manoah feared for his life, since it was said that no one could live after seeing God. However, his wife convinced him that, if God planned to slay them, he would never have revealed such things to them. In due time, their son Samson was born, and he was raised according to the provisions.[7][8]
Marriage to a Philistine[edit]
See also: Samson's riddle
When he was a young adult, Samson left the hills of his people to see the cities of Philistia. He fell in love with a Philistine woman from Timnah, whom he decided to marry, ignoring the objections of his parents, who were concerned because the Israelites were forbidden to marry Gentiles.[7][8][10][11] In the development of the narrative, the intended marriage was shown to be part of God's plan to strike at the Philistines.[8]
According to the biblical account, Samson was repeatedly seized by the "Spirit of the Lord," who blessed him with immense strength. The first instance of this is seen when Samson was on his way to ask for the Philistine woman's hand in marriage, when he was attacked by a lion. He simply grabbed it and ripped it apart, as the spirit of God divinely empowered him. However, Samson kept it a secret, not even mentioning the miracle to his parents.[8][12][13] He arrived at the Philistine's house and became betrothed to her. He returned home, then came back to Timnah some time later for the wedding. On his way, Samson saw that bees had nested in the carcass of the lion and made honey.[8][13] He ate a handful of the honey and gave some to his parents.[8]
At the wedding feast, Samson told a riddle to his thirty groomsmen (all Philistines). If they could solve it, he would give them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments, but if they could not solve it, they would give him thirty pieces of fine linen and garments.[7][8] The riddle was a veiled account of two encounters with the lion, at which only he was present:[8][13]
Out of the eater came something to eat.
Out of the strong came something sweet.[14]
The Philistines were infuriated by the riddle.[8] The thirty groomsmen told Samson's new wife that they would burn her and her father's household if she did not discover the answer to the riddle and tell it to them.[8][13] At the urgent and tearful imploring of his bride, Samson told her the solution, and she told it to the thirty groomsmen.[7][8]
Samson Slays a Thousand Men with the Jawbone of a Donkey (c. 1896–1902) by James Tissot
Before sunset on the seventh day they said to him,
What is sweeter than honey?
and what is stronger than a lion?
Samson said to them,
If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle.[15]
Samson then traveled to Ashkelon (a distance of roughly 30 miles) where he slew thirty Philistines for their garments; he then returned and gave those garments to his thirty groomsmen.[7][13][16] In a rage, Samson returned to his father's house. The family of his would-have-been bride instead gave her to one of the groomsmen as wife.[7][13][16] Some time later, Samson returned to Timnah to visit his wife, unaware that she was now married to one of his former groomsmen. But her father refused to allow Samson to see her, offering to give Samson a younger sister instead.[7][16]
Samson went out, gathered 300 foxes, and tied them together in pairs by their tails. He then attached a burning torch to each pair of foxes' tails and turned them loose in the grain fields and olive groves of the Philistines.[17] The Philistines learned why Samson burned their crops and burned Samson's wife and father-in-law to death in retribution.[7][16][18]
In revenge, Samson slaughtered many more Philistines, saying, "I have done to them what they did to me."[7][16] Samson then took refuge in a cave in the rock of Etam.[7][16][19] An army of Philistines came to the Tribe of Judah and demanded that 3,000 men of Judah deliver them Samson.[7][19] With Samson's consent, they tied him with two new ropes and were about to hand him over to the Philistines when he broke free of the ropes.[18][19] Using the jawbone of a donkey, he slew 1,000 Philistines.[18][19][20]
Delilah[edit]
Samson and Delilah (1887) by Jose Etxenagusia
Later, Samson travels to Gaza, where he stays at a harlot's house.[16][21] His enemies wait at the gate of the city to ambush him, but he tears the gate from its very hinges and frame and carries it to "the hill that is in front of Hebron".[16][21]
He then falls in love with Delilah in the valley of Sorek.[16][18][21][22] The Philistines approach Delilah and induce her with 1,100 silver coins to find the secret of Samson's strength so that they can capture their enemy,[16][21] but Samson refuses to reveal the secret and teases her, telling her that he will lose his strength if he is bound with fresh bowstrings.[16][21] She does so while he sleeps, but when he wakes up he snaps the strings.[16][21] She persists, and he tells her that he can be bound with new ropes. She ties him up with new ropes while he sleeps, and he snaps them, too.[16][21] She asks again, and he says that he can be bound if his locks are woven into a weaver's loom.[16][21] She weaves them into a loom, but he simply destroys the entire loom and carries it off when he wakes.[16][21]
Delilah, however, persists and Samson finally wears down and tells Delilah that God supplies his power because of his consecration to God as a Nazirite, symbolized by the fact that a razor has never touched his head, and that if his hair is cut off he will lose his strength.[23][24][16][22] Delilah then woos him to sleep "in her lap" and calls for a servant to cut his hair.[16] Samson loses his strength and he is captured by the Philistines who blind him by gouging out his eyes.[16] They then take him to Gaza, imprison him, and put him to work turning a large millstone and grinding corn.[21]
Pushing or pulling?
According to the biblical narrative, Samson died when he grasped two pillars of the Temple of Dagon and "bowed himself with all his might" (Judges 16:30, KJV). This has been variously interpreted as Samson pushing the pillars apart (left) or pulling them together (right).
Death[edit]
One day, the Philistine leaders assemble in a temple for a religious sacrifice to Dagon, one of their most important deities, for having delivered Samson into their hands.[21][25] They summon Samson so that people can watch him perform for them. The temple is so crowded that people are even climbing onto the roof to watch—and all the rulers of the entire government of Philistia have gathered there too, some 3,000 people in all.[22][25][26] Samson is led into the temple, and he asks his captors to let him lean against the supporting pillars to rest. He prays for strength and God gives him strength to break the pillars, causing the temple to collapse, killing him and the people inside.[27]
After his death, Samson's family recovered his body from the rubble and bury him near the tomb of his father Manoah.[25] A tomb structure which some attribute to Samson and his father stands on the top of the mountain in Tel Tzora.[28] At the conclusion of Judges 16, it is said that Samson had "judged" Israel for twenty years.[19] The Bible does not mention the fate of Delilah.[22]
Religious interpretations[edit]
Rabbinic literature[edit]
The Blinded Samson (1912) by Lovis Corinth
Main article: Samson in rabbinic literature
Rabbinic literature identifies Samson with Bedan,[7] a Judge mentioned by Samuel in his farewell address (1 Samuel 12:11) among the Judges who delivered Israel from their enemies.[29] However, the name "Bedan" is not found in the Book of Judges.[29] The name "Samson" is derived from the Hebrew word šemeš, which means "sun",[7][1][30] so that Samson bore the name of God, who is called "a sun and shield" in Psalms 84:11;[7] and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God.[7] Samson's strength was divinely derived (Talmud, Tractate Sotah 10a).[7][31]
Jewish legend records that Samson's shoulders were sixty cubits broad.[7] (Many Talmudic commentaries, however, explain that this is not to be taken literally, for a person that size could not live normally in society. Rather, it means that he had the ability to carry a burden 60 cubits wide (approximately 30 meters) on his shoulders).[32] He was lame in both feet[33] but, when the spirit of God came upon him, he could step with one stride from Zorah to Eshtaol, while the hairs of his head arose and clashed against one another so that they could be heard for a like distance.[7][34] Samson was said to be so strong that he could uplift two mountains and rub them together like two clods of earth,[35] yet his superhuman strength, like Goliath's, brought woe upon its possessor.[7][36]
In licentiousness, he is compared with Amnon and Zimri, both of whom were punished for their sins.[7][37] Samson's eyes were put out because he had "followed them" too often.[7][38] It is said that, in the twenty years during which Samson judged Israel, he never required the least service from an Israelite,[39] and he piously refrained from taking the name of God in vain.[7] Therefore, as soon as he told Delilah that he was a Nazarite of God, she immediately knew that he had spoken the truth.[7][38] When he pulled down the temple of Dagon and killed himself and the Philistines, the structure fell backward so that he was not crushed, his family being thus enabled to find his body and to bury it in the tomb of his father.[7][40]
In the Talmudic period, some seem to have denied that Samson was a historical figure, regarding him instead as a purely mythological personage. This was viewed as heretical by the rabbis of the Talmud, and they attempted to refute this. They named Hazelelponi as his mother in Numbers Rabbah Naso 10 and in Bava Batra 91a and stated that he had a sister named "Nishyan" or "Nashyan".[7]
Christian interpretations[edit]
Samson in the Treadmill (1863) by Carl Bloch
Samson's story has also garnered commentary from a Christian perspective; the Epistle to the Hebrews praises him for his faith.[41] Ambrose, following the portrayal of Josephus and Pseudo-Philo,[42] represents Delilah as a Philistine prostitute,[42] and declares that "men should avoid marriage with those outside the faith, lest, instead of love of one's spouse, there be treachery."[42] Caesarius of Arles interpreted Samson's death as prefiguring the crucifixion of Jesus,[42] remarking: "Notice here an image of the cross. Samson extends his hands spread out to the two columns as to the two beams of the cross."[42] He also equates Delilah with Satan,[42] who tempted Christ.[42]
Following this trend, more recent Christian commentators have viewed Samson as a type of Jesus Christ, based on similarities between Samson's story and the life of Jesus in the New Testament.[43][44] Samson's and Jesus' births were both foretold by angels,[43] who predicted that they would save their people.[43] Samson was born to a barren woman,[43] and Jesus was born of a virgin.[43] Samson defeated a lion; Jesus defeated Satan, whom the First Epistle of Peter describes as a "roaring lion looking for someone to devour".[45] Samson's betrayal by Delilah has also been compared to Jesus' betrayal by Judas Iscariot;[44] both Delilah and Judas were paid in pieces of silver for their respective deeds.[46] Ebenezer Cobham Brewer notes in his A Guide to Scripture History: The Old Testament that Samson was "blinded, insulted [and] enslaved" prior to his death, and that Jesus was "blindfolded, insulted, and treated as a slave" prior to his crucifixion.[47] Brewer also compares Samson's death among "the wicked" with Christ being crucified between two thieves.[47]
Scholarly interpretations[edit]
Samson Slaying the Lion (1628) by Peter Paul Rubens
Academics have interpreted Samson as a demigod (such as Heracles or Enkidu) enfolded into Jewish religious lore,[48] or as an archetypical folk hero.[30]
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some comparative mythologists interpreted Samson as a euhemerized solar deity,[49][50][51][30] arguing that Samson's name is derived from the Hebrew word šemeš, meaning "sun",[30][1] and that his long hair might represent the sun's rays.[30] These solar theorists also pointed out that the legend of Samson is set within the general vicinity of Beth Shemesh, a village whose name means "Temple of the Sun".[30] They argued that the name Delilah may have been a wordplay with the Hebrew word for night, layla, which "consumes" the day.[52] Although this hypothesis is still sometimes promoted in scholarly circles,[30] it has generally fallen out of favor due to the superficiality of supporting evidence.[30]
An interpretation far more popular among current scholars holds that Samson is a Hebrew variant of the same international Near Eastern folk hero which inspired the earlier Mesopotamian Enkidu and the later Greek Heracles (and, by extension, his Roman Hercules adaptation).[53][30][1] Heracles and Samson both slew a lion bare-handed (the former killed the Nemean lion).[30][1] Likewise, they were both believed to have once been extremely thirsty and drunk water which poured out from a rock,[53] and to have torn down the gates of a city.[53] They were both betrayed by a woman (Heracles by Deianira, Samson by Delilah),[30] who led them to their respective dooms.[30] Both heroes, champions of their respective peoples, die by their own hands:[30] Heracles ends his life on a pyre; whereas Samson makes the Philistine temple collapse upon himself and his enemies.[30] In this interpretation, the annunciation of Samson's birth to his mother is a censored account of divine conception.[53] Samson also strongly resembles Shamgar,[30] another hero mentioned in the Book of Judges,[30] who, in Judges 3:31, is described as having slain 600 Philistines with an ox-goad.[30]
A monument of Samson in Poland
These views are disputed by traditional and conservative biblical scholars who consider Samson to be a literal historical figure and thus reject any connections to mythological heroes.[30] The concept of Samson as a "solar hero" has been described as "an artificial ingenuity".[54] Joan Comay, co-author of Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament, believes that the biblical story of Samson is so specific concerning time and place that Samson was undoubtedly a real person who pitted his great strength against the oppressors of Israel.[55] In contrast, James King West considers that the hostilities between the Philistines and Hebrews appear to be of a "purely personal and local sort".[56] He also considers that Samson stories have, in contrast to much of Judges, an "almost total lack of a religious or moral tone".[56] Conversely, Elon Gilad of Haaretz writes "some biblical stories are flat-out cautions against marrying foreign women, none more than the story of Samson".[57] Gilad notes how Samson's parents disapprove of his desire to marry a Philistine woman and how Samson's relationship with Delilah leads to his demise.[57] He contrasts this with what he sees as a more positive portrayal of intermarriage in the Book of Ruth.[57]
In August 2012, archaeologists from Tel Aviv University announced the discovery of a circular stone seal,[58] approximately 15 millimetres in diameter,[58] which was found on the floor of a house at Beth Shemesh[58] and appears to depict a long-haired man slaying a lion.[58] The seal is dated to the 12th century BCE.[58] Professor Shlomo Bunimovitz, a co-director of the dig, was reported as saying that the artifact helps "anchor the story [of Samson] in an archaeological setting."[58]
Zvi Lederman, the other co-director of the dig, believes that Beth Shemesh was a cultural meeting point on the border of Israelite, Canaanite, and Philistine areas[58] and calls the stories of Samson "border sagas",[58] noting that Samson could cross boundaries to seek out a Philistine wife, but also to fight and kill Philistines:[58] "When you cross the border, you have to fight the enemy and you encounter dangerous animals. You meet bad things. These are stories of contact and conflict, of a border that is more cultural than political."[58] According to Haaretz, "excavation directors Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz and Dr. Zvi Lederman of Tel Aviv University say they do not suggest that the human figure on the seal is the biblical Samson. Rather, the geographical proximity to the area where Samson lived, and the time period of the seal, show that a story was being told at the time of a hero who fought a lion, and that the story eventually found its way into the biblical text and onto the seal."[59]
Cultural influence[edit]
Statue of Samson and the lion in Peterhof, Russia
Samson parade Mauterndorf, Austria
Alleged site of Samson's tomb in the Zorah (Tzora) forest
Main article: Cultural references to Samson
As an important biblical character, Samson has been referred to in popular culture and depicted in a vast array of films, artwork, and popular literature. John Milton's closet drama Samson Agonistes is an allegory for the downfall of the Puritans and the restoration of the English monarchy[60] in which the blinded and imprisoned Samson represents Milton himself,[60] the "Chosen People" represent the Puritans,[60] and the Philistines represent the English Royalists.[60] The play combines elements of ancient Greek tragedy and biblical narrative.[61] Samson is portrayed as a hero,[62] whose violent actions are mitigated by the righteous cause in whose name they are enacted.[62] The play casts Delilah as an unrepentant, but sympathetic, deceiver[63] and speaks approvingly of the subjugation of women.[63]
In 1735, George Frideric Handel wrote the opera Samson,[64] with a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton, based on Samson Agonistes.[64] The opera is almost entirely set inside Samson's prison[64] and Delilah only briefly appears in Act II.[64] In 1877, Camille Saint-Saëns composed the opera Samson and Delilah with a libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire in which the entire story of Samson and Delilah is retold.[64] In the libretto, Delilah is portrayed as a seductive femme fatale,[64] but the music played during her parts invokes sympathy for her.[64]
The 1949 biblical drama Samson and Delilah, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr in the titular roles, was widely praised by critics for its cinematography, lead performances, costumes, sets, and innovative special effects.[65] It became the highest-grossing film of 1950,[66] and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two.[67] According to Variety, the film portrays Samson as a stereotypical "handsome but dumb hulk of muscle".[68]
Samson has been especially honored in Russian artwork[69] because the Russians defeated the Swedes in the Battle of Poltava on the feast day of St. Sampson, whose name is homophonous with Samson's.[69] The lion slain by Samson was interpreted to represent Sweden, as a result of the lion's placement on the Swedish coat of arms.[69] In 1735, C. B. Rastrelli's bronze statue of Samson slaying the lion was placed in the center of the great cascade of the fountain at Peterhof Palace in Saint Petersburg.[69]
Samson is the emblem of Lungau, Salzburg[70] and parades in his honor are held annually in ten villages of the Lungau and two villages in the north-west Styria (Austria).[70] During the parade, a young bachelor from the community carries a massive figure made of wood or aluminum said to represent Samson.[70] The tradition, which was first documented in 1635,[70] was entered into the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Austria in 2010.[70][71] Samson is one of the giant figures at the "Ducasse" festivities, which take place at Ath, Belgium.[72]
See also[edit]
Gilgamesh
Samson Option
Samson Unit
Shamash
Strength (Tarot card)
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Greek: Σαμψών
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Van der Toorn, Karel; Pecking, Tom; van der Horst, Peter Willem (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 404. ISBN 9780802824912.
Jump up ^ Comay, Joan; Brownrigg, Ronald (1993). Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament. New York: Wing Books. pp. Old Testament, 316–317. ISBN 0-517-32170-X.
Jump up ^ Judges 16:17
Jump up ^ Judges 13
Jump up ^ Judges 13:2
^ Jump up to: a b Rogerson, John W. (1999). Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings: the Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Ancient Israel. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 58. ISBN 0-500-05095-3.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Samson". Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m Comay, Joan; Brownrigg, Ronald (1993). Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament. New York: Wing Books. pp. Old Testament, 317. ISBN 0-517-32170-X.
Jump up ^ Judges 13
Jump up ^ Deuteronomy 7:3
Jump up ^ Judges 14
Jump up ^ Judges 14:6
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Rogerson, John W. (1999). Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings: the Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Ancient Israel. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 59. ISBN 0-500-05095-3.
Jump up ^ Judges 14:14
Jump up ^ Judges 14:18
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Comay, Joan; Brownrigg, Ronald (1993). Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament. New York: Wing Books. pp. Old Testament, 318. ISBN 0-517-32170-X.
Jump up ^ Judges 15
^ Jump up to: a b c d Rogerson, John W. (1999). Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Ancient Israel. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 61. ISBN 0-500-05095-3.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Judges 16
Jump up ^ Porter, J. R. (2000). The Illustrated Guide to the Bible. New York: Barnes & Noble Books. p. 75. ISBN 0-7607-2278-1.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Judges 16
^ Jump up to: a b c d Rogerson, John W. (1999). Chronicle of the Old Testament Kings: The Reign-By-Reign Record of the Rulers of Ancient Israel. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 62. ISBN 0-500-05095-3.
Jump up ^ Judges 16:17
Jump up ^ Judges 16:16 (ESV)
^ Jump up to: a b c Comay, Joan; Brownrigg, Ronald (1993). Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament. New York: Wing Books. pp. Old Testament, 319. ISBN 0-517-32170-X.
Jump up ^ Judges 16:27
Jump up ^ Judges 16:28–30, JPS (1917)
Jump up ^ I. M. Levinger; Kalman Neuman (2008). IsraGuide 2007/2008 (pb). Feldheim Publishers. p. 266. ISBN 978-1-59826-154-7.
^ Jump up to: a b BibleGateway – Quick search: Bedan
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Mobley, Gregory (2006). Samson and the Liminal Hero in the Ancient Near East. New York City, New York and London, England: T & T Clark. pp. 5–12. ISBN 978-0-567-02842-6.
Jump up ^ Midrash Genesis Rabbah xcviii. 18
Jump up ^ Ben Yehoyada and Maharal, in commentary to Talmud, tractate "sotah" 10a
Jump up ^ (Talmud tractate Sotah 10a)
Jump up ^ Midrash Leviticus Rabbah viii. 2
Jump up ^ (ibid.; Sotah 9b)
Jump up ^ Midrash Eccl. Rabbah i., end
Jump up ^ (Leviticus Rabbah. xxiii. 9)
^ Jump up to: a b (Sotah l.c.)
Jump up ^ (Midrash Numbers Rabbah ix. 25)
Jump up ^ (Midrash Genesis Rabbah l.c. § 19)
Jump up ^ Hebrews 11:32-11:34
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Newsome, Carol Ann; Ringe, Sharon H.; Lapsley, Jacqueline E., eds. (2012) [1992]. Women's Bible Commentary (third ed.). Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-664-23707-3.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Thomson, Edward (1838). "Prophecy, Types, And Miracles, The Great Bulwarks Of Christianity: Or A Critical Examination And Demonstration Of Some Of The Evidences By Which The Christian Faith Is Supported". Hatchard & Son. p. 299–300. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b Heaster, Duncan (2017). "Micah: Old Testament New European Christadelphian Commentary". Retrieved October 30, 2017.
Jump up ^ Beasley, Robert C. (2008). "101 Portraits of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures". Signalman Publishing. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
Jump up ^ Lynn G, S (2008). "A Study of the Good the Bad and the Desperate Women in the Bible". p. 46. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham. "A Guide to Scripture History. The Old Testament". Trinity Hall, Cambridge. p. 190. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
Jump up ^ Leviton, Richard (2014). The Mertowney Mountain Interviews. iUniverse. p. 244. ISBN 9781491741290.
Jump up ^ Jastrow, Morris (1898). The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. Boston: Ginn & Company.
Jump up ^ Charles Fox Burney, The Book of Judges, with Introduction and Notes (London: Rivingtons, 1918).
Jump up ^ Graves, Robert (1955) The Greek Myths cf Herakles.
Jump up ^ Freedman, David Noel, ed. (2000). Eerdmans Dictionary of The Bible. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. p. 336 (entry for 'Delilah'). ISBN 0-8028-2400-5.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Wajdenbaum, P. (2014). Argonauts of the Desert: Structural Analysis of the Hebrew Bible. New York City, New York and London, England: Routledge. pp. 223–227. ISBN 978-1-84553-924-5.
Jump up ^ Cooke, George Albert (1913). The Book of Judges. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Jump up ^ Comay, Joan; Brownrigg, Ronald (1993). Who's Who in the Bible: The Old Testament and the Apocrypha, The New Testament. New York: Wing Books. pp. Old Testament, 320. ISBN 0-517-32170-X.
^ Jump up to: a b West, James King (1971). Introduction to the Old Testament. New York City, New York: MacMillan Company. p. 183.
^ Jump up to: a b c Gilad, Elon (June 4, 2014). "Intermarriage and the Jews: What Would the Early Israelites Say?". Haaretz. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j "Ancient Seal May Add Substance to the Legend of Samson". Science Daily. 13 August 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
Jump up ^ Hasson, Nir (Jul 30, 2012). "National Seal found by Israeli archeologists may give substance to Samson legend". Haaretz. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Smith, Preserved (1930). A History of Modern Culture. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 387. ISBN 978-1-108-07464-3.
Jump up ^ Teskey, Gordon (2006). Delirious Milton: The Fate of the Poet in Modernity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 144. ISBN 9780674010697.
^ Jump up to: a b Lieb, Michael (1994). Milton and the Culture of Violence. London, England: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801429033.
^ Jump up to: a b Guillory, John (1986). "Dalila's House: Samson Agonistes' and the Sexual Division of Labor". In Ferguson, Margaret; Quilligan, Maurren; Vickers, Nancy. Rewriting the Renaissance: The Discourses of Sexual Difference in Early Modern Europe. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226243146.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Leneman, Helen (2000). "Portrayals of Power in the Stories of Delilah and Bathsheba: Seduction in Song". In Aichele, George. Culture, Entertainment, and the Bible. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, Ltd. p. 153. ISBN 1-84127-075-X.
Jump up ^ McKay, James (2013). The Films of Victor Mature. McFarland & Company. p. 76. ISBN 9780786449705.
Jump up ^ Barton, Ruth (2010). Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in Film. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky. p. 174. ISBN 9780813126104.
Jump up ^ "23rd Academy Awards Winners". www.oscars.org.
Jump up ^ Variety staff (31 December 1949). "Variety – Review: Samson and Delilah". Variety.
^ Jump up to: a b c d Wortman, Richard S. (2006). Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy: From Peter the Great to the Abdication of Nicholas II. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 25–26. ISBN 978-0-691-12374-5.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e "Samson:Emblem of Lungau". lungau.at. Saliburger Lungau.
Jump up ^ Samsontragen im Lungau und Bezirk Murau Archived 2015-12-22 at the Wayback Machine., Nationalagentur für das Immaterielle Kulturerbe, Österreichische UNESCO-Kommission
Jump up ^ see fr:Samson (Géant processionnel)
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Samson.
Catalogue entry for Samson (1887) by Solomon Solomon, National Museums Liverpool
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text:
Venus flytrap
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the plant. For other uses, see Venus Flytrap (disambiguation).
Venus flytrap
Leaf
Conservation status

Vulnerable (IUCN 2.3)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Droseraceae
Genus: Dionaea
Sol. ex J.Ellis 1768
Species: D. muscipula
Binomial name
Dionaea muscipula
J.Ellis
Distribution
Synonyms[2]
Dionea Raf., spelling variant
Dionaea corymbosa
(Raf.) Steud. (1840)
Dionaea crinita
Sol. (1990) as synonym
Dionaea dentata
D'Amato (1998) name published without description
Dionaea heterodoxa
D'Amato (1998) nom.nud.
Dionaea muscicapa
St.Hil. (1824) sphalm.typogr.
Dionaea sensitiva
Salisb. (1796)
Dionaea sessiliflora
(Raf.) Steud. (1840)
Dionaea uniflora
(Raf.) Steud. (1840)
Drosera corymbosa
Raf. (1833)
Drosera sessiliflora
Raf. (1833)
Drosera uniflora
Raf. (1833)
The Venus flytrap (also referred to as Venus's flytrap or Venus' flytrap), Dionaea muscipula, is a carnivorous plant native to subtropical wetlands on the East Coast of the United States in North Carolina and South Carolina.[3] It catches its prey—chiefly insects and arachnids—with a trapping structure formed by the terminal portion of each of the plant's leaves, which is triggered by tiny hairs on their inner surfaces. When an insect or spider crawling along the leaves contacts a hair, the trap prepares to close, snapping shut only if another contact occurs within approximately twenty seconds of the first strike. The requirement of redundant triggering in this mechanism serves as a safeguard against wasting energy by trapping objects with no nutritional value, and the plant will only begin digestion after five more stimuli to ensure it has caught a live bug worthy of consumption.
Dionaea is a monotypic genus closely related to the waterwheel plant (Aldrovanda vesiculosa) and sundews (Drosera), all of which belong to the family Droseraceae.
Contents
[hide]
1 Description
2 Etymology
3 Carnivory
3.1 Prey selectivity
3.2 Mechanism of trapping
3.3 Digestion
4 Evolution
4.1 Proposed evolutionary history
5 Habitat
6 Cultivation
6.1 Cultivars
7 Conservation
8 In alternative medicine
9 See also
10 References
11 External links
Description
In 1760, the North Carolina colonial governor, Arthur Dobbs, penned the first written description of the plant in a letter to English botanist Peter Collinson It was dated Brunswick, Jan. 24, 1760.[4][5][6]
“The great wonder of the vegetable kingdom is a very curious unknown species of Sensitive. It is a dwarf plant. The leaves are like a narrow segment of a sphere, consisting of two parts, like the cap of a spring purse, the concave part outwards, each of which falls back with indented edges (like an iron spring fox-trap); upon anything touching the leaves, or falling between them, they instantly close like a spring trap, and confine any insect or anything that falls between them. It bears a white flower. To this surprising plant I have given the name of Fly trap Sensitive.”
—  Arthur Dobbs
This seems to be the earliest notice of the plant and is before the letters of John Ellis on the subject.[7]
The Venus flytrap is a small plant whose structure can be described as a rosette of four to seven leaves, which arise from a short subterranean stem that is actually a bulb-like object. Each stem reaches a maximum size of about three to ten centimeters, depending on the time of year;[8] longer leaves with robust traps are usually formed after flowering. Flytraps that have more than seven leaves are colonies formed by rosettes that have divided beneath the ground.
Illustration from Curtis's Botanical Magazine by William Curtis (1746–1799)
The leaf blade is divided into two regions: a flat, heart-shaped photosynthesis-capable petiole, and a pair of terminal lobes hinged at the midrib, forming the trap which is the true leaf. The upper surface of these lobes contains red anthocyanin pigments and its edges secrete mucilage. The lobes exhibit rapid plant movements, snapping shut when stimulated by prey. The trapping mechanism is tripped when prey contacts one of the three hair-like trichomes that are found on the upper surface of each of the lobes. The mechanism is so highly specialized that it can distinguish between living prey and non-prey stimuli, such as falling raindrops;[9] two trigger hairs must be touched in succession within 20 seconds of each other or one hair touched twice in rapid succession,[9] whereupon the lobes of the trap will snap shut, typically in about one-tenth of a second.[10] The edges of the lobes are fringed by stiff hair-like protrusions or cilia, which mesh together and prevent large prey from escaping. These protrusions, and the trigger hairs (also known as sensitive hairs) are likely homologous with the tentacles found in this plant’s close relatives, the sundews. Scientists have concluded that the snap trap evolved from a fly-paper trap similar to that of Drosera.[11]
The holes in the meshwork allow small prey to escape, presumably because the benefit that would be obtained from them would be less than the cost of digesting them. If the prey is too small and escapes, the trap will usually reopen within 12 hours. If the prey moves around in the trap, it tightens and digestion begins more quickly.
Speed of closing can vary depending on the amount of humidity, light, size of prey, and general growing conditions. The speed with which traps close can be used as an indicator of a plant's general health. Venus flytraps are not as humidity-dependent as are some other carnivorous plants, such as Nepenthes, Cephalotus, most Heliamphora, and some Drosera.
The Venus flytrap exhibits variations in petiole shape and length and whether the leaf lies flat on the ground or extends up at an angle of about 40–60 degrees. The four major forms are: 'typica', the most common, with broad decumbent petioles; 'erecta', with leaves at a 45-degree angle; 'linearis', with narrow petioles and leaves at 45 degrees; and 'filiformis', with extremely narrow or linear petioles. Except for 'filiformis', all of these can be stages in leaf production of any plant depending on season (decumbent in summer versus short versus semi-erect in spring), length of photoperiod (long petioles in spring versus short in summer), and intensity of light (wide petioles in low light intensity versus narrow in brighter light).[citation needed]
Flowering venus flytrap showing its long flower stem
Closeup of flower (c. 20 mm in diameter)
The species produces small, shiny black seeds
Etymology
The plant's common name refers to Venus, the Roman goddess of love. The genus name, Dionaea ("daughter of Dione"), refers to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, while the species name, muscipula, is Latin for "mousetrap".[12]
Historically, the plant was also known by the slang term "tipitiwitchet" or "tippity twitchet", possibly an oblique reference to the plant's resemblance to human female genitalia.[12][13]
Carnivory
A closing trap
Prey selectivity
Play media
A time lapse showing Venus flytrap catching prey
Most carnivorous plants selectively feed on specific prey. This selection is due to the available prey and the type of trap used by the organism. With the Venus flytrap, prey is limited to beetles, spiders and other crawling arthropods. In fact, the Dionaea diet is 33% ants, 30% spiders, 10% beetles, and 10% grasshoppers, with fewer than 5% flying insects.[14] Given that Dionaea evolved from an ancestral form of Drosera (carnivorous plants that use a sticky trap instead of a snap trap) the reason for this evolutionary branching becomes clear. Whilst Drosera consume smaller, aerial insects, Dionaea consume larger terrestrial bugs. Dionaea are able to extract more nutrients from these larger bugs. This gives Dionaea an evolutionary advantage over their ancestral sticky trap form.[15]
Mechanism of trapping
Closeup of one of the hinged trigger hairs
The Venus flytrap is one of a very small group of plants capable of rapid movement, such as Mimosa pudica, the Telegraph plant, sundews and bladderworts.
The mechanism by which the trap snaps shut involves a complex interaction between elasticity, turgor and growth. The trap only shuts when there have been two stimulations of the trigger hairs; this is to avoid inadvertent triggering of the mechanism by dust and other wind-borne debris. In the open, untripped state, the lobes are convex (bent outwards), but in the closed state, the lobes are concave (forming a cavity). It is the rapid flipping of this bistable state that closes the trap,[10] but the mechanism by which this occurs is still poorly understood. When the trigger hairs are stimulated, an action potential (mostly involving calcium ions—see calcium in biology) is generated, which propagates across the lobes and stimulates cells in the lobes and in the midrib between them.[16] It is hypothesized that there is a threshold of ion buildup for the Venus flytrap to react to stimulation.[17] After closing, the flytrap counts additional stimulations of the trigger hairs, to five total, to start the production of digesting enzymes.[18] The acid growth theory states that individual cells in the outer layers of the lobes and midrib rapidly move 1H+ (hydrogen ions) into their cell walls, lowering the pH and loosening the extracellular components, which allows them to swell rapidly by osmosis, thus elongating and changing the shape of the trap lobe. Alternatively, cells in the inner layers of the lobes and midrib may rapidly secrete other ions, allowing water to follow by osmosis, and the cells to collapse. Both of these mechanisms may play a role and have some experimental evidence to support them.[19][20]
Digestion
If the prey is unable to escape, it will continue to stimulate the inner surface of the lobes, and this causes a further growth response that forces the edges of the lobes together, eventually sealing the trap hermetically and forming a "stomach" in which digestion occurs. Release of the digestive enzymes is controlled by the hormone jasmonic acid, the same hormone that triggers the release of toxins as an anti-herbivore defense mechanism in non-carnivorous plants. (See Evolution below)[18][21] Once the digestive glands in the leaf lobes have been activated, digestion is catalysed by hydrolase enzymes secreted by the glands.
Oxidative protein modification is likely to be a pre-digestive mechanism used by Dionaea muscipula. Aqueous leaf extracts have been found to contain quinones such as the naphthoquinone plumbagin that couples to different NADH-dependent diaphorases to produce superoxide and hydrogen peroxide upon autoxidation.[22] Such oxidative modification could rupture animal cell membranes. Plumbagin is known to induce apoptosis, associated with the regulation of the Bcl-2 family of proteins.[23] When the Dionaea extracts were pre-incubated with diaphorases and NADH in the presence of serum albumin (SA), subsequent tryptic digestion of SA was facilitated.[22] Since the secretory glands of Droseraceae contain proteases and possibly other degradative enzymes, it may be that the presence of oxygen-activating redox cofactors function as extracellular pre-digestive oxidants to render membrane-bound proteins of the prey (insects) more susceptible to proteolytic attacks.[22]
Digestion takes about ten days, after which the prey is reduced to a husk of chitin. The trap then reopens, and is ready for reuse.[24]
Evolution
Drosera falconeri, with short, wide, sticky leaf traps
Carnivory in plants is a very specialized form of foliar feeding, and is an adaptation found in several plants that grow in nutrient-poor soil. Carnivorous traps were naturally selected to allow these organisms to compensate for the nutrient deficiencies of their harsh environments by supplementing ordinary photosynthate with animal proteins.[25]
The "snap trap" mechanism characteristic of Dionaea is shared with only one other carnivorous plant genus, Aldrovanda. For most of the 20th century, this relationship was thought to be coincidental, more precisely an example of convergent evolution. Some phylogenetic studies even suggested that the closest living relatives of Aldrovanda were the sundews.[26] It was not until 2002 that a molecular evolutionary study, by analyzing combined nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences, indicated that Dionaea and Aldrovanda were closely related and that the snap trap mechanism evolved only once in a common ancestor of the two genera.[27][28]
A 2009 study[26] presented evidence for the evolution of snap traps of Dionaea and Aldrovanda from a flypaper trap like Drosera regia, based on molecular data. The molecular and physiological data imply that Dionaea and Aldrovanda snap traps evolved from the flypaper traps of a common ancestor with Drosera. Pre-adaptations to the evolution of snap traps were identified in several species of Drosera, such as rapid leaf and tentacle movement. The model proposes that plant carnivory by snap trap evolved from the flypaper traps, driven by increasing prey size. Bigger prey provides greater nutritional value, but large insects can easily escape the sticky mucilage of flypaper traps; the evolution of snap traps would therefore prevent escape and kleptoparasitism (theft of prey captured by the plant before it can derive benefit from it), and would also permit a more complete digestion.[26][27]
In 2016, a study of the expression of genes in the plant's leaves as they captured and digested prey was published in the journal, Genome Research. The gene activation observed in the leaves of the plants gives support to the hypothesis that the carnivorous mechanisms present in the flytrap are a specially adapted version of mechanisms used by non-carnivorous plants to defend against herbivorous insects.[21][29] In many non-carnivorous plants, jasmonic acid serves as a signaling molecule for the activation of defense mechanisms, such as the production of hydrolases, which can destroy chitin and other molecular components of insect and microbial pests.[30] In the Venus flytrap, this same molecule has been found to be responsible for the activation of the plant's digestive glands. A few hours after the capture of prey, another set of genes is activated inside the glands, the same set of genes that is active in the roots of other plants, allowing them to absorb nutrients. The use of similar biological pathways in the traps as non-carnivorous plants use for other purposes indicates that somewhere in its evolutionary history, the Venus flytrap repurposed these genes for the purpose of carnivory.
Proposed evolutionary history
Carnivorous plants are generally herbs, and their traps the result of primary growth. They generally do not form readily fossilizable structures such as thick bark or wood. As a result, there is no fossil evidence of the steps that might link Dionaea and Aldrovanda, or either genus with their common ancestor, Drosera. Nevertheless, it is possible to infer an evolutionary history based on phylogenetic studies of both genera. Researchers have proposed a series of steps that would ultimately result in the complex snap-trap mechanism:[26][27]
Larger insects usually walk over the plant, instead of flying to it,[31] and are more likely to break free from sticky glands alone. Therefore, a plant with wider leaves, like Drosera falconeri,[26] must have adapted to move the trap and its stalks in directions that maximized its chance of capturing and retaining such prey—in this particular case, longitudinally. Once adequately "wrapped", escape would be more difficult.[31]
Evolutionary pressure then selected for plants with shorter response time, in a manner similar to Drosera burmannii or Drosera glanduligera. The faster the closing, the less reliant on the flypaper model the plant would be.
As the trap became more and more active, the energy required to "wrap" the prey increased. Plants that could somehow differentiate between actual insects and random detritus/rain droplets would have an advantage, thus explaining the specialization of inner tentacles into trigger hairs.
Ultimately, as the plant relied more on closing around the insect rather than gluing them to the leaf surface, the tentacles so evident in Drosera would lose their original function altogether, becoming the "teeth" and trigger hairs—an example of natural selection utilizing pre-existing structures for new functions.
Completing the transition, the plant eventually developed the depressed digestive glands found inside the trap, rather than using the dews in the stalks, further differentiating it from genus Drosera.
Habitat
Map of the original distribution of the Venus flytrap
The Venus flytrap is found in nitrogen- and phosphorus-poor environments, such as bogs and wet savannahs. Small in stature and slow-growing, the Venus flytrap tolerates fire well, and depends on periodic burning to suppress its competition.[32] Fire suppression threatens its future in the wild.[33] It survives in wet sandy and peaty soils. Although it has been successfully transplanted and grown in many locales around the world, it is native only to the coastal bogs of North and South Carolina in the United States, specifically within a 60-mile radius of Wilmington, North Carolina.[34] One such place is North Carolina's Green Swamp. There also appears to be a naturalized population of Venus flytraps in northern Florida as well as an introduced population in western Washington.[35][36] The nutritional poverty of the soil is the reason that the plant relies on such elaborate traps: insect prey provide the nitrogen for protein formation that the soil cannot. The Venus flytrap is not a tropical plant and can tolerate mild winters. In fact, Venus flytraps that do not go through a period of winter dormancy will weaken and die after a period of time.[37]
Cultivation
Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu', Japanese for 'Red Dragon', in cultivation
Venus flytraps are popular as cultivated plants, but have a reputation for being difficult to grow.[8] Successfully growing these specialized plants requires recreating a close approximation to the plant's natural habitat.
Healthy Venus flytraps will produce scapes of white flowers in spring; however, many growers remove the flowering stems early (2–3 inches), as flowering consumes some of the plant's energy and thereby reduces the rate of trap production. If healthy plants are allowed to flower, successful pollination will result in seeds.
Venus flytraps should be planted in poor soil as their main nutrition source comes from the insects they eat. The soil should be kept humid in order to replicate their natural habitat. It is also better to water them with distilled or rain water as tap water is generally too alkaline-heavy or contains too many minerals to use to water a Venus flytrap. A healthy plant should be fed no more than two insects per week. Over feeding or feeding it anything else than small insects may cause the plant to rot and die. also note that feeding it insects larger than 1/3 of the traps length might result in the plant not being able to achieve an airtight seal between the two leaves and some of the acid leaking, which can be harmful the Venus Flytrap. [38]
Plants can be propagated by seed, taking around four to five years to reach maturity. More commonly, they are propagated by clonal division in spring or summer. Venus flytraps can also be propagated in vitro using plant tissue culture.[39] Most Venus flytraps found for sale in nurseries garden centers have been produced using this method, as this is the most cost-effective way to propagate them on a large scale. Regardless of the propagation method used, the plants will live for 20 to 30 years if cultivated in the right conditions.[40]
Cultivars
Main article: List of Venus flytrap cultivars
Venus flytraps are by far the most commonly recognized and cultivated carnivorous plant, and they are frequently sold as houseplants. Various cultivars (cultivated varieties) have come into the market through tissue culture of selected genetic mutations, and these plants are raised in large quantities for commercial markets.
Conservation
The species is classified as "vulnerable" by the National Wildlife Federation.[41] In 2015, there were estimated to be fewer than 33,000 plants in the wild, all within 75 miles (121 km) of the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, and all on sites owned by The Nature Conservancy, the North Carolina state government, or the US military.[42]
In 2014, the state of North Carolina passed Senate Bill 734 which classifies the theft of naturally growing Venus flytraps in the state as a felony. Tougher sanctions and penalties for the theft were also enacted in December 1, 2014 in accordance with legislation.[43]
In alternative medicine
Venus flytrap extract is available on the market as an herbal remedy, sometimes as the prime ingredient of a patent medicine named "Carnivora". According to the American Cancer Society, these products are promoted in alternative medicine as a treatment for a variety of human ailments including HIV, Crohn's disease and skin cancer, but "available scientific evidence does not support the health claims made for Venus flytrap extract".[44]
See also
Carnivorous plants of North America
List of ineffective cancer treatments
References
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Jump up ^ Schlauer, J. (N.d.) Dionaea muscipula. Carnivorous Plant Database.
Jump up ^ Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
Jump up ^ Hortus Collinsonianus. An account of the plants cultivated by the late Peter Collinson - By Lewis Weston DILLWYN, Peter COLLINSON
Jump up ^ Gardeners Chronicle & New Horticulturist - Volumes 3-4
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Jump up ^ Directions for Bringing over Seeds and Plants, from the East Indies and Other Distant Countries, in a State of Vegetation: Together with a Catalogue of Such Foreign Plants as Are Worthy of Being Encouraged in Our American Colonies, for the Purposes of Medicine, Agriculture, and Commerce. To Which is Added, the Figure and Botanical Description of a New Sensitive Plant, Called Dionæa muscipula: or, Venus's Fly-trap - (London, printed and sold by L. Davis, 1770).
^ Jump up to: a b "Venus flytraps". The Carnivorous Plant FAQ. Retrieved 2005-06-13.
^ Jump up to: a b Raven, Peter H.; Evert, Ray Franklin; Eichhorn, Susan E. (2005). Biology of Plants (7th ed.). W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-1007-2.
^ Jump up to: a b Forterre, Yoël; Skotheim, Jan M.; Dumais, Jacques; Mahadevan, L. (27 January 2005). "How the Venus flytrap snaps" (PDF). Nature. 433 (7024): 421–425. doi:10.1038/nature03185. PMID 15674293. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2007.
Jump up ^ Cameron, Kenneth M.; Wurdack, Kenneth J.; Jobson, Richard W. (2002). "Molecular evidence for the common origin of snap-traps among carnivorous plants". American Journal of Botany. 89 (9): 1503–1509. doi:10.3732/ajb.89.9.1503. PMID 21665752.
^ Jump up to: a b "Background Information on Venus Fly Traps—Venus Fly Trap naming and history". FlyTrapCare.com. 2008-04-04. Archived from the original on 17 December 2008.
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Jump up ^ Gibson, TC; Waller, DM (2009). "Evolving Darwin's 'most wonderful' plant: ecological steps to a snap-trap". New Phytologist. 183 (1): 575–587. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02935.x. PMID 19573135.
Jump up ^ Hodick, Dieter; Sievers, Andreas (1989). "The action potential of Dionaea muscipula Ellis". Planta. 174 (1): 8–18. doi:10.1007/BF00394867.
Jump up ^ "Press release: The Trap Snaps Shut" (PDF). Wiley ChemBioChem. January 2010. doi:10.1002/(issn)1439-7633/asset/homepages/press/201001press.pdf.
^ Jump up to: a b Böhm, J.; Scherzer, S.; Krol, E.; Kreuzer, I.; von Meyer, K.; Lorey, C.; Mueller, T. D.; Shabala, L.; Monte, I.; Solano, R.; Al-Rasheid, K. A. S.; Rennenberg, H.; Shabala, S.; Neher, E.; Hedrich, R. (2016). "The Venus Flytrap Dionaea muscipula Counts Prey-Induced Action Potentials to Induce Sodium Uptake". Current Biology. 26: 286–295. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.11.057. ISSN 0960-9822. PMC 4751343  . PMID 26804557.
Jump up ^ Williams, S. E. 2002. Comparative physiology of the Droseraceae sensu stricto—How do tentacles bend and traps close? Proceedings of the 4th International Carnivorous Plant Society Conference. Tokyo, Japan. pp. 77–81.
Jump up ^ Hodick, Dieter; Sievers, Andreas (1988). "On the mechanism of closure of Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula Ellis)". Planta. 179 (1): 32–42. doi:10.1007/BF00395768. PMID 24201419.
^ Jump up to: a b Bemm, Felix; Becker, Dirk; Larisch, Christina; Kreuzer, Ines; Escalante-Perez, Maria; Schulze, Waltraud X.; Ankenbrand, Markus; Weyer, Anna-Lena Van de; Krol, Elzbieta; Al-Rasheid, Khaled A.; Mithöfer, Axel; Weber, Andreas P.; Schultz, Jörg; Hedrich, Rainer (4 May 2016). "Venus flytrap carnivorous lifestyle builds on herbivore defense strategies". Genome Research. 26: 812–825. doi:10.1101/gr.202200.115. ISSN 1088-9051. PMC 4889972  . PMID 27197216. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
^ Jump up to: a b c Galek H, Osswald WF, Elstner EF (1990). "Oxidative protein modification as predigestive mechanism of the carnivorous plant Dionaea muscipula: an hypothesis based on in vitro experiments". Free Radic Biol Med. 9 (5): 427–34. doi:10.1016/0891-5849(90)90020-J. PMID 2292436.
Jump up ^ Hsu YL, Cho CY, Kuo PL, Huang YT, Lin CC (Aug 2006). "Plumbagin (5-Hydroxy-2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone) Induces Apoptosis and Cell Cycle Arrest in A549 Cells through p53 Accumulation via c-Jun NH2-Terminal Kinase-Mediated Phosphorylation at Serine 15 in Vitro and in Vivo". J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 318 (2): 484–94. doi:10.1124/jpet.105.098863. PMID 16632641.
Jump up ^ Produced by Neil Lucas (2009-12-07). "Plants". Life. BBC. BBC One.
Jump up ^ AM Ellison (2006). "Nutrient limitation and stoichiometry of carnivorous plants" (PDF). Biology. 8: 740–747. doi:10.1055/s-2006-923956.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Gibson, T. C.; Waller, D. M. (2009). "Evolving Darwin's 'most wonderful' plant: ecological steps to a snap-trap" (PDF). New Phytologist. 183 (3): 575–587. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02935.x. PMID 19573135.
^ Jump up to: a b c Cameron, K. M.; Wurdack, K. J.; Jobson, R. W. (2002). "Molecular evidence for the common origin of snap-traps among carnivorous plants". American Journal of Botany. 89 (9): 1503–1509. doi:10.3732/ajb.89.9.1503. PMID 21665752.
Jump up ^ Rivadavia, F.; K. Kondo; M. Kato & M. Hasebe (2003). "Phylogeny of the sundews, Drosera (Droseraceae), based on chloroplast rbcL and nuclear 18S ribosomal DNA Sequences". American Journal of Botany. 90 (1): 123–130. doi:10.3732/ajb.90.1.123. PMID 21659087.
Jump up ^ Stokstad, E. (12 May 2016). "How the Venus flytrap acquired its taste for meat". Science. 352 (6287): 756–756. doi:10.1126/science.352.6287.756. PMID 27174967. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
Jump up ^ Turner, John G.; Ellis, Christine; Devoto, Alessandra (1 May 2002). "The Jasmonate Signal Pathway". The Plant Cell. 14 (suppl 1): S153–S164. doi:10.1105/tpc.000679. ISSN 1532-298X. PMC 151253  . PMID 12045275. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
^ Jump up to: a b "Venus flytrap origins uncovered". BBC News. 2009.
Jump up ^ W. Schulze; E.D. Schulze; I. Schulze & R. Oren (2001). "Quantification of insect nitrogen utilization by the venus fly trap Dionaea muscipula catching prey with highly variable isotope signatures". Journal of Experimental Botany. 52 (358): 1041–1049. doi:10.1093/jexbot/52.358.1041. PMID 11432920.
Jump up ^ Leege, Lissa. "How does the Venus flytrap digest flies?". Scientific American. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
Jump up ^ Darwin, C. R. 1875. Insectivorous Plants.
Jump up ^ Schnell, D. E. (2002). Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada (2nd ed.). Timber Press. ISBN 0-88192-540-3.
Jump up ^ Giblin, D. Nd. Dionaea muscipula. Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.
Jump up ^ "International Carnivorous Plant Society". Carnivorousplants.org. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 2013-08-26.
Jump up ^ how to grow a Venus flytrap - WikiHow
Jump up ^ Jang, Gi-Won; Kim, Kwang-Soo; Park, Ro-Dong (2003). "Micropropagation of Venus fly trap by shoot culture". Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture. 72 (1): 95–98. doi:10.1023/A:1021203811457. Retrieved 19 May 2016.
Jump up ^ D'Amato, Peter (1998). The Savage Garden: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants. Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 0-89815-915-6.
Jump up ^ "Venus Flytrap". National Wildlife Federation. Retrieved 2015-07-10.
Jump up ^ John R. Platt (2015-01-22). "Venus Flytraps Risk Extinction in the Wild at the Hands of Poachers". Scientific American. Retrieved 2015-07-10.
Jump up ^ Evans, Jon (September 18, 2014). "Stealing Venus Flytrap plants now a felony". www.wect.com. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
Jump up ^ "Venus Flytrap". American Cancer Society. November 2008. Archived from the original on 18 February 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
External links
Wikispecies has information related to Dionaea muscipula
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dionaea muscipula.
Images and movies of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) at ARKive
Venus Flytrap Growing Guide and Distribution Map
The Carnivorous Plant FAQ: Flytraps
Venus flytrap origins uncovered - BBC
The CP Photo Finder: "Dionaea"
Dionaea muscipula - The Venus flytrap at Botanical Society of America
Criminal Podcast Episode Five: Dropping Like Flies
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Carnivorous and protocarnivorous plants
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Brocchinia
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See also
International Carnivorous Plant Society
Insectivorous Plant Society
List of carnivorous plants
List of carnivorous plant periodicals
Pitcher plant
Taxon identifiers
Wd: Q155825
ARKive: dionaea-muscipula
EoL: 584643
FNA: 220004158
GBIF: 5421410
GRIN: 405268
iNaturalist: 52666
IPNI: 275898-2
ITIS: 22008
IUCN: 39636
NCBI: 4362
PalDat: Dionaea_muscipula
Plant List: kew-62109
PLANTS: DIMU4
Species+: 21371
Tropicos: 11400032
WCSP: 62109
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