The length's that all living things will go to in order to get the food needed to survive is amazing. All living things, including plants. Want proof? Consider the Tropical Pitcher Plant.
Tropical Pitcher Plant
The carnivorous tropical pitcher plant is less known than its infamous relative, the Venus flytrap. Its flowers are a pitcher shape, coated on the inside with extremely slippery wax walls and sweet-smelling nectar at the bottom, all topped off by a lid. There are two different variations of the pitcher plant: the highland and the lowland. They both occur in the tropics in places with constantly humid air. The highland species is much more common and has a more tubelike shape compared to the lowland version, which has a wider, more typical flower shape at the top of its pitcher.
The pitcher plant is best-known for capturing small insects and bugs, which smell the nectar and unwittingly climb in looking for a sweet treat. However, the liquid at the bottom contains digestive proteins which will immediately get to work, while the trapped animal tries tirelessly to crawl up the slimy walls. Although it is common to find small insects or bugs in these traps, tropical pitchers are the only plants known to have devoured entire rats! They can grow to a large enough size that even animals as large and clever as rats have become prey.
I wonder if they work on mosquitos? I figure if a plant is bad-ass enough to eat a rat, then it should be able to handle Texas mosquitos, right? How's that for a Freaky Friday topic?
Coffee out on the patio again this morning. It's only supposed to get to 85 today.
