A Villose pitcher plant (Nepenthes villosa) growing among orchids, 3,100 meters above sea level, on the slopes of Mount Kinabalu on the island of Borneo. Its pitcher-shaped leaves trap and digest small organisms. Snails often use the pitchers of this species to lay their eggs in—a reliably moist and safe environment that is hard to find on the steep slopes, in harsh sunlight.

Carnivorous plants have evolved in a number of different parts of the world, generally in response to low-nutrient environments. While other plants are struggling to find nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, carnivorous plants gather food in ingenious ways. Until recently, scientists thought all carnivorous plants operated in a similar way, catching insects and digesting them. But we are now discovering plant-animal interaction to be more complex, and to involve all manner of sophisticated symbiotic relationships.

A bump on the tip of a leaf of the fanged pitcher plant (Nepenthes biclacarata) gradually grows into a pitcher, over the course of several weeks.

The flask-shaped pitcher plant (Nepenthes ampullaria) is unusual in that the enzymes in its digestive liquid are best suited to breaking down plant matter. The pitchers collect and digest falling leaf litter.

A complete colony of ants lives inside the stem of this plant, foraging inside the pitcher for insects. They are resistant to the plant’s digestive juices, and can swim in the liquid without harm. The ants take only large insects, which would disrupt the digestive chemistry of the pitcher if they were not removed.

A small frog climbs up a fringed pitcher-plant (Nepenthes tentaculata), probably to lay eggs in the cup. A few frog species have evolved immunity to the pitcher’s digestive liquids so that their tadpoles can develop within the pitchers.

Hardwicke’s woolly bat uses the pitchers of Nepenthes hemsleyana as a day roost. In exchange for housing the tiny three-gram bat, the plant benefits from the bat’s droppings, which are rich in both nitrogen and phosphorus. The liquid level in the pitchers of this species is very low to avoid harming the sleeping bat.

Nepenthes rajah has some of the largest pitchers of the genus, with a capacity of three liters. The plant has been known to capture lizards and small mammals, but tree shrews lick the nectar that gathers beneath the lid of the pitcher unscathed. Their bodies are precisely the length of the distance from the rim of the pitcher to the digestive liquid. As they lick the nectar, they mark their feeding territory by urinating and defecating. Often this occurs directly into the pitcher cup, thus providing the plant with phosphorus and nitrogen.

An abundance of life can be found inside a pitcher of a Nepenthes rajah after a tree shrew has defecated. Dozens of specialized insect larvae species have evolved immunity to the digestive fluids of the plants and can thrive in this environment. Nepenthes rajah has some of the largest pitchers of the genus, with a capacity of three liters. The plant has been known to capture lizards and small mammals, but tree shrews lick the nectar that gathers beneath the lid of the pitcher unscathed. Their bodies are precisely the length of the distance from the rim of the pitcher to the digestive liquid. As they lick the nectar, they mark their feeding territory by urinating and defecating. Often this occurs directly into the pitcher cup, thus providing the plant with phosphorus and nitrogen.

Sundews use sticky hair-like structures to trap insects, which they then digest. Here a damselfly has been caught by a leaf of an oblong-leafed sundew (Drosera intermedia).

Thousands of yellow pitcher-plants (Sarracenia flava) fill a clearing in a patch of old-growth pine forest. Once widespread across the southeastern United States, this forest habitat has been reduced to less than five percent of its original extent and many of its species have become rare.

Long-Term Projects,1st prize

Family Love 1993-2014