Chinese scientists have successfully cloned in quantity Venus' flytrap, a rare flower that can catch and eat flies and drive away mosquitoes.

The unusual flowers are now on display at an agricultural exhibition attached to the ongoing fourth China Beijing International High-Tech Industries Week.

Wang Rongsheng, general manager of the Shanghai-based Tianke Gardening Co., Ltd., told Xinhua that his company introduced Dionea miscipula, or Venus' flytrap, last year, and has cloned 20,000 so far.

The high-tech bio-company plans to cultivate 100,000 pots of the flowers this year.

The flower grows no more than 15 centimeters, and has clamshell-like green leaves, which are equipped with three rows of spikes.

When touched by flies or mosquitoes, the spiked leaves close on the intruder, Wang said. There are light purple glands in the leaves that excrete a special kind of liquid which enables the flower to digest the captured flies before the leaves unfold about a dozen days later.

The flower can also "eat" thin pieces of meat or cheese.

According to the Chinese-language "Flower" magazine, this flower is the most effective killer among over 500 kinds of insect- catching flowers worldwide.

It originated in North America.

Wang said that his company has also decided to clone some other types of mosquito-repellant and insect-catching flowers on a large scale to meet the needs of the domestic market.

Flies, mosquitoes, rats and bedbugs have been listed as four major insects for extinction in Chinese cities for dozens of years.

(Xinhua 05/13/2001)