Nepenthaceae
Pitcher Plant Family
The Nepenthaceae family (Pitcher Plant Family) is a botanical family placed in the order Caryophyllales. It is represented by a single species in the SASYA catalogue. That species is a climber.
Browse all 1 species ↓
Climbing or scrambling vines whose leaf tip extends into a coiling tendril that terminates in a specialised cup-shaped pitcher trap, its rim slick and its base pooled with digestive fluid that drowns and digests insects lured inside by nectar and colour.
The pitcher is not a flower or fruit at all but a heavily modified leaf tip — one of the most elaborate carnivorous trapping structures anywhere in the plant kingdom.
Typical leaf characters
- ArrangementAlternate
- TypeVariable
- MarginVariable
- VenationVariable
Characters typical of the family — individual species can vary.
Typical flower & fruit
- Flower symmetryVariable
- InflorescencePanicle
- FruitCapsule
Typical of the family — flowering plants only; species can vary.
Notable members
All 1 species in NEPENTHACEAE
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