In your back garden, a Venus flytrap or sundew is happy with tiny gnats and mosquitoes. But in the rainforests of Borneo, the Philippines and South America, some pitcher plants grow enormous - big enough to drown and dissolve much bigger prey.
Researchers have documented giant pitcher plants catching tree frogs, small lizards, juvenile rats, salamanders and even the occasional small bird. The animals usually fall in by accident - they perch on the slippery rim to drink rainwater or hunt insects already inside, slip, and can’t climb back out.
That said, “eating frogs” is the exception, not the rule. Pitcher plants get the vast majority of their nutrients from regular insects. The vertebrate meals are mostly happy accidents. But they’re a great reminder that the plant world has its own predators waiting patiently with their mouths open.
