Byblis species look very similar to Drosera and Drosophyllum, but are distinguished by their zygomorphic flowers, with five curved stamens off to one side of the pistil.

Unless they are strong enough to escape, the insect prey either die of exhaustion or asphyxiate as the mucilage envelops them and clogs their spiracles.

Byblis were previously grouped among the 'passive flypaper traps' along with Pinguicula, Drosophyllum, Roridula, Stylidium and Triphyophyllum peltatum as the plants were believed to be capable of moving neither their leaves nor tentacles to aid in prey capture or digestion.

However, research in 2019 showed that the tentacles of Byblis liniflora collapse following exposure to food, bringing the prey item into contact with the sessile digestive glands.

[4] Flowers in this genus are borne singly at the end of unbranching, leaf-like inflorescences which emerge from the leaf axils.

The pollen release of B. gigantea and B. lamellata is only triggered by the resonance frequency of the wings of a landing pollinator, helping ensure cross-pollination with other individuals.

The black seeds are generally round and often bear webbed surface markings, although those of B. lamellata are strongly ridged.

The majority of plant material sold today is produced in cultivation, with the annual B. filifolia and B. liniflora being the most common.

The West Australian species B. gigantea und B. lamellata are being threatened by habitat destruction for urban sprawl from cities such as Perth.

B. gigantea is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species and is considered critically endangered.

In their natural habitat, all species have been observed playing host to live bugs of the genus Setocoris, which nourished themselves by eating prey caught by the plants.

These species grow from seedlings to flowering plants in only a few months, setting seed and dying with the onset of the dry season.

Unlike the annual members of the B. liniflora complex, these species survive the dry season by dying back to an underground rhizome, out of which they emerge come fall.

In the year 2004 a single fossil of a seed, resembling that of members of the modern day B. liniflora complex, was discovered in south Australia dating from the middle of the Eocene epoch.