Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants which have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be “true” pitcher plants are formed by specialized leaves. The plants attract and drown their prey with nectar.
Foraging, flying or crawling insects such as flies are attracted to a cavity formed by the cupped leaf, often by visual lures such as anthocyanin pigments, and nectar bribes. The rim of the pitcher is slippery when moistened by condensation or nectar, causing insects to fall into the trap. Pitcher plants may also contain waxy scales, protruding aldehyde crystals, cuticular folds, inward and downward pointing hairs, or guard-cell-originating lunate cells on the inside of the pitcher to ensure that insects cannot climb out.
Lisa B
Ewww…the smell?
Trent M
I think I would not bee able to help myself and I would have helped them out. Insects I wouldn’t care but I loved catching newts and salamanders as a kid and I’d want to save them.