Fanged pitcher plant

Nepenthes bicalcarata was formally described by Joseph Dalton Hooker in his 1873 monograph, Nepenthaceae, based on specimens collected by Hugh Low and Odoardo Beccari near Lawas River in Borneo.

Like many Nepenthes species, the fanged pitcher plant has also developed a mutualistic relationship with insects. The ant Camponotus schmitzi nests in the hollow tendrils of the plant, and is able to run up and down the walls of the pitchers without falling in, enabling it to hunt in the pitcher fluid (2) (4). In an unusual twist, these ants help the fanged pitcher plant not by feeding it, but by removing some of its larger prey. More