Chapter 1
Poisonous Pitchers
Poisonous pitchers is an interesting and fitting name for this chapter. Pitcher plants are filled with digestive juices that slowly turn the insides of their victims into liquid.
Pitcher plants come in different shapes, sizes, and colors. The purple pitcher is green and violet, but is very different in design compared to cousins, such as blood cups or a tropical pitcher. Even the same kinds of plants, such as blood cups, look different. For example, in blood cups, the sweet juice can be red or green; the ‘cups’ can be orange, green or red; and the stands can be red, green, or a modeled mix of the two.
So, speaking of blood cups, let’s take a closer look at these poisonous pitchers.
Blood cups, also called devil’s jugs, huntsman’s cups, and frog’s breeches look very, very strange. They look as though they are sewn together along the edge with discolored green needles sticking and interlacing in every which-way. The green, red, or green and red bulbous stands look like large, alien jars with curricular red, orange, or green cups set at the mouths. Some have a few, randomly placed red, green, or green edged with red leaves. These are shaped like slender ovals with pointed tips. Adding to the odd appearance, they are filled with a usually blood-red juice to attract their soon-to-be-victims.
And that is just how one of these strange meat-eating plants look.
Another kind of pitcher, a tropical pitcher, looks just as out-of-this-world. It has a round leaf at its top. This leaf is a yellowy-green and a red color. A circle-shaped ring crowns the opening, and after that is a odd shaped body filled with sticky syrup. At its very base, is a vine, which leads upwards towards a large green leaf hanging from a plant that has the potential to grow up to 50 feet tall.
Others include the ten-petaled trumpet pitcher plant (a beautiful yellow five-pedal flower with five other, longer and more slender pedals hanging at the bottom) and the Nepenthes inermis (a light green cup-shaped pitcher plant with a small, thin vine hanging over the top).
Basically, pitcher plants are cup-shaped, usually hanging, with vats of sticky and sweet digestive juices that make bug and other animals zeroing in on what they think is a free meal become the meal of the plant!
The usual look of a pitcher plant, with the exception of plants like blood cups and purple pitchers, is a gourd-shaped body with a circular opening and a leaf (of various sizes) crowning the top.
Life in the World of a Bug
A large black fly smelled the sweet scent of nectar. Yum, it thought. Dinner.
The fly followed the delicious scent until it found what it was looking for: a tube-shaped plant hanging from an elegant vine, both of which where splotched with green and red.
Licking its lips with its thin black tongue, the fly buzzed over to the plant. Aware of the thick vat of liquid below it, the fly clung to the edge of the strange plant in hopes to sample some sweet nectar.
The fly flicked its tongue in and out in and out. It tasted the sweet syrup. Happily, the fly dared to creep closer to the tantalizingly delicious smelling, and tasting, juices.
It continued to eat the stuff, hoping to gorge itself so that it wouldn’t have to eat for the rest of the day. At the thought, the fly licked up the nectar even more quickly.
Suddenly, it slipped down into the thick of sweet syrup. The fly, in desperation, attempted flight, but its wings were to thickly coated in the juices to beat and raise the fly’s body.
It used up its last hope trying to climb the walls of the plant once more. But now, there were countless hairs baring its way to freedom, making it impossible for it to flee from the sticky nectar.
It floated helplessly, felling a terrible pain. Slowly, the plant digested its victim and awaited its next meal....
Fun Facts About Pitcher Plants
• Some spiders will steal the catches of pitcher plants. They’ll sometimes make webs over the openings of a pitcher plant. A bug flying in for a sip of sweet nectar will get stuck in the spider’s web. •Another thing that spiders will do is they will make a single strand of a web and, when they’re hungry, will swoop down and snatch the pitcher plant’s meal. Other times, they get caught by the plant themselves.
• Ants have also found a way to outsmart the pitcher plants. They swim through the poisonous liquid and steal the victims of the plant. No one knows how the ants do not become liquified in the nectar.
• Some carnivorous plants are active, and some are passive. An active carnivorous plant will move to catch its prey, like a Cephalotus follicularis or a sundew. A passive carnivorous plant will sit still and leave inanimate traps for its prey. Some of these include Nempenthes inermis and blood cups.• In some tropical pitchers, rats become victims and mean a feast for a pitcher plant.
• Carnivorous plants not only make food out of dead animals, but they also use photosynthesis--as most plants do--to provide them with food.
• Carnivorous plants live on every continent except Antarctica.
Last One
To end this chapter, we will talk about Cephalotus follicularis, a beautiful and extraordinary pitcher plant.
Cephalotus follicularis looks kind of like a blood cup in a way. It has a stand braided with spines. But, unlike the blood cup, it looks like it has an open clam shell on its top, not a cup. The ‘clam shell’ has a bottom covered in what looks like rings. The top of the ‘shell’ is covered in needles. This plant comes in a wide verity of colors and color blends. Red, violet, green, white, and brown come in all shades in this type of carnivorous plant. The leathery ‘skin’ covering Cephalotus follicularis’s stand is faded by the beautiful ‘clam shell’ crowning the top.
Located only in a small area of Australia, the Cephalotus follicularis is hard to find. But it is easy for this plant to find an easy meal.
First, the Cephalotus follicularis will lie in wait, ‘cam shell’ open. Next, when a wandering, curious bug or other small organism comes across it and climbs inside, hopeful for a taste of sweet nectar, the lid will snap shut. It’s a one-way entrance, and now its blocked. The creature has no chance of escape.
The ‘clam shell’ with remain closed until the bug is liquified. Then, it will open, ready for its next meal.
-KittyLover8
© 2012
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