Fire Piranha Plant

A Venus Fire Trap ("Fire Pakkun" in Japan) is a variety of Piranha Plant that shoots fireballs in Marios direction. Some varities can shoot 3 at once instead of 1. They can be either green or red and appear in Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, New Super Mario Bros. and most recently, New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Venus Fire Traps made several appearances in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3. Piranha Plants with fireball exhaling abilities similar to Venus Fire Traps also appeared in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! though referred to as a Magic Piranha Plant.

In the Nintendo Comics System story "The Fish That Should've Gotten Away", a giant green Venus Fire Trap appears among the large group of monsters attacking and chasing Mario.

They also appear rarely in Super Mario 64 in Tiny-Huge Island and Bowser in the Sky, where they are drastically smaller than their previous appearances (or, in the case of the Huge part of Tiny-Huge Island, larger). They would attack by appearing suddenly, then blasting a small fireball before disappearing. They were easy to defeat; if Mario punched one, it would simply pop and leave a coin behind. Larger versions appeared in the same game where they were just as large as Super Piranha Plants. They attacked the same and could be defeated with a single punch.

In New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Venus Fire Traps can be defeated with a Fire Flower, Starman. shell dash, or by Mega Mario or Mega Luigi. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, they can be frozen via Penguin Suit or Ice Flower. Venus Fire Traps can also be helpful to Mario and the others. They can be found in dark caves where there are no Glow Blocks. However, the fire these enemies spit can light up a small amount of the room, often revealing secret pipes and pits. The fire still hurts Mario however.

Trivia

 * Venus Fire Trap is a play on the name of a real life carnivorous plant, the Venus Flytrap.
 * Elasto-Piranhas from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time attacks just like Venus Fire Traps.
 * In the game Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins for Sony PlayStation Portable, a Piranha Plant-like creature appears that spits fireballs much like a Venus Fire Trap.