The cobra lily, also called the California pitcher plant, looks exactly like a rearing cobra ready to strike, complete with a forked “tongue” hanging from its hood. It grows in cold, mountain bogs in northern California and Oregon and traps insects in a remarkably sneaky way.
The hood arches over the mouth of the trap and has dozens of small translucent patches - like little windows. An insect that crawls inside looking for nectar sees light streaming through these windows and tries to fly out toward what looks like the exit. Smack. It bashes against the wall and tumbles down into the slippery tube.
Inside, the cobra lily doesn’t even bother making its own digestive juices. Instead, a community of bacteria living in the bottom of the trap breaks the insects down. The plant just absorbs the nutrient soup the bacteria leave behind. It outsourced the digestion to microbes.
