Seoul Grand Park showcases nature's botanical predators
A Venus flytrap on display at Seoul Grand Park’s carnivorous plant exhibition, showcasing its open trap lined with trigger hairs. Courtesy of Seoul Grand Park
Long a sanctuary for native flora and exotic animals, the Seoul Grand Park Botanical Garden is turning the spotlight on nature’s most cunning hunters: carnivorous plants.
Starting Oct. 2, the park will host its 20th annual carnivorous plant exhibition, a 10-day Exploring North American Carnivorous Plants with JBS showcase.
Set in the Welcoming Garden near the main entrance, the event features more than 700 specimens across 16 species native to North America — ranging from the iconic Venus flytrap and dew-beaded sundews to cobra lilies and butterworts.
To make the botanical science accessible to families, park organizers are framing the exhibit around JBS (Jabasseu), a whimsical fictional mascot group created to celebrate the botanical garden’s 40th anniversary. Made up of five characters modeled after insect-eating plants — including Fly, Taeyang-i and Sara — JBS acts as a pop-idol-style guide, leading visitors through an interactive journey tracing how these plants thrive in the wild.
JBS, a fictional carnivorous plant idol group created for Seoul Grand Park’s 40th anniversary in 2025 / Courtesy of Seoul Grand Park
Carnivorous plants are evolutionary marvels. By adapting to nutrient-poor soils like peat bogs and wetlands, they developed ingenious mechanisms to lure, trap and digest insects to supplement missing nutrients. The exhibit recreates these distinct North American ecosystems, contrasting the humid coastal bogs of the southeastern United States with the chilly wetlands of Canada and the mountainous terrain of Mexico.
Since 2003, the annual exhibition has grown into a hallmark event for the park.
As an officially designated conservation institution for rare plants, Seoul Grand Park boasts the largest collection of carnivorous flora in Korea, harboring over 7,100 specimens across 400 species collected through national conservation initiatives.
The event offers hands-on engagement for children and adults alike. Visitors can join guided tours led by forest interpreters, participate in therapeutic gardening sessions to pot their own Venus flytraps, or craft wooden keepsakes featuring the JBS characters.
"Carnivorous plants spark genuine curiosity with their unusual shapes and survival tactics, but they also carry profound ecological value," a park official said, adding that the event aims to inspire a newfound appreciation for biodiversity.
The exhibition runs through Oct. 11, open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entry to the outdoor showcase is included with general admission to the park. For urbanites looking to reconnect with nature, it provides a vivid, up-close look at the remarkable adaptability of the plant kingdom.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.