They attract insects with the odor of nectar. Once inside, the insect finds it cannot get a grip on the walls of the pitcher because a flaky wax on the interior surface peels off as it struggles to climb. Eventually, it falls into the water and struggles to escape. The motion caused by the struggle stimulates digestive glands to release a digestive acid. This acid is so strong that a midge will disappear within hours. The largest of these, the Rajah pitcher, is able to digest mice! Like our own pitcher plant, this one too has its live inhabitants, the largest of which is a small crab. To get the most out your specimen and this article, learning about how a Monkey Cup Plant functions is an excellent place to start. Many people will have a vague idea of how the mechanics of the plant works; however, the science behind this is much more enjoyable. The insect is lured into the hollow chamber via its smells of sweet nectar and bright colours. Once inside, the slippery surface and downward-pointing hairs will cause the prey to cascade into a pool of liquid, where it'll instantly sink and drown in digestive-acid. The detailed tops of the Pitcher (otherwise known as a Monkey Cup) are created by a cluster of window-like structures, formed from groups of chlorophyll-deficient cells that enables light into the chamber, enticing the insects to enter. Many people panic over what to feed their plant. Natural prey like spiders, flies, mosquitoes and even slugs are the only food that they should digest. Never feed them cake, meat or stones as this will kill the individual Pitcher or even spell the end of the plant's life. Dead insects should be avoided too, as the trichomes can detect whether or not there's something inside it, and if the prey doesn’t move, digestion won't take place. The final point to mention is never to allow it to digest something bigger than one-third of the Pitchers' size; the lips won't be able to shut entirely, thus wasting vital energy in the process. Most nepenthes species, particularly highland nepenthes, grow and perform best at temperatures ranging from 18 to 27 degrees Celsius during the day and 7 to 18 degrees Celsius at night. Pruning

a b Gaume, L.; Forterre, Y. (2007). "A viscoelastic deadly fluid in carnivorous pitcher plants". PLOS ONE. 2 (11): e1185. Bibcode: 2007PLoSO...2.1185G. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001185. PMC 2075164. PMID 18030325. You should also consider moving the plant outside once in a while so it can catch and feed on its own prey. This will help improve the general well-being of the plant. Barry A. Rice (2006). Growing carnivorous plants. Timber Press, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-88192-807-5.The root draws up moisture from the earth which with the help of the sun's rays rises up into the plant itself and then flows down through the stems and nerves of the leaves into the natural utensil to be stored there until used for human needs. [translated from Latin in Pitcher-Plants of Borneo] [15]

When growing the nepenthe plant, make sure it gets 2 to 4 hours of direct sunlight per day. Avoid placing them under the scorching sun; this can lead to leaf burns. Frazier, C.K. (2000). " The Enduring Controversies Concerning the Process of Protein Digestion in Nepenthes". Carnivorous Plant Newsletter. 29 (2): 56–61. doi: 10.55360/cpn292.cf425. S2CID 247153343. Gledhill, David (2008). The Names of Plants (4thed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.271. ISBN 978-0-521-86645-3. Organisms that spend at least part of their lives within the pitchers of Nepenthes species are often called Nepenthes infauna. The most common infaunal species, often representing the top trophic level of the infaunal ecosystem, are many species of mosquito larvae. Other infaunal species include fly and midge larvae, spiders, mites, ants, and even a species of crab ( Geosesarma malayanum). Many of these species specialise to one pitcher plant species and are found nowhere else. These specialists are called nepenthebionts. Others, often associated with but not dependent on Nepenthes species, are called nepenthophiles. Nepenthexenes, on the other hand, are rarely found in the pitchers, but will often appear when putrefaction approaches a certain threshold, attracting fly larvae that would normally not be found in the pitcher infaunal community. The complex ecological relationship between pitcher plants and infauna is not yet fully understood, but the relationship may be mutualistic: the infauna is given shelter, food, or protection, and the plant that harbours the infauna receives expedited breakdown of captured prey, increasing the rate of digestion and keeping harmful bacterial populations repressed. [35] [40] [41] Antimicrobial properties [ edit ] Plants can be propagated by seed, cuttings, and tissue culture. Seeds are usually sown on damp chopped Sphagnum moss, or on sterile plant tissue culture media once they have been properly disinfected. The seeds generally become nonviable soon after harvesting, so seed are not usually the preferred method of propagation. A 1:1 mixture of orchid medium with moss or perlite has been used for germination and culture. Seed may take two months to germinate, and two years or more to yield mature plants. Cuttings may be rooted in damp Sphagnum moss in a plastic bag or tank with high humidity and moderate light. They can begin to root in one to two months and start to form pitchers in about six months. Tissue culture is now used commercially and helps reduce collection of wild plants, as well as making many rare species available to hobbyists at reasonable prices. Nepenthes species are considered threatened or endangered plants and all of them are listed in CITES Appendix II, with the exception of N. rajah and N. khasiana which are listed in CITES Appendix I. [59] The CITES listing means all international trade (including in parts and derivatives) is controlled by the CITES permitting system, with wilda b Jebb, M.; Cheek, M. (1997). "A skeletal revision of Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae)". Blumea. 42: 1–106. Nepenthes distillatoria was again described in 1683, this time by Swedish physician and naturalist Herman Niklas Grim. [49] Grim called it Planta mirabilis destillatoria or the "miraculous distilling plant", and was the first to clearly illustrate a tropical pitcher plant. [15] Three years later, in 1686, English naturalist John Ray quoted Grim as saying: [50]

Moran, J.A. (2003). "From carnivore to detritivore? Isotopic evidence for leaf litter utilization by the tropical pitcher plant Nepenthes ampullaria". International Journal of Plant Sciences. 164 (4): 635–639. doi: 10.1086/375422. hdl: 10170/576. S2CID 53573745. Every calorie counts to those obsessed with losing weight and keeping fit. A well-balanced diet and regular exercise are...Plant the cutting in sphagnum moss by placing the base of the cutting with the node directly in the potting medium. Water the cutting and then place the pot in an area with high humidity and access to bright light.