The pitcher plant drowns small insects, who are attracted to the colorful leaf rosettes that resemble flowers. At the ends of the leaves are traps shaped like small pitchers, with a leafy “lid” to keep the rain out. Insects love the sweat nectar the plant produces around its slippery rim. When an insect lands on the rim, it slips inside, and drowns in the fluid at the bottom a mixture of rain, dew, and a digestive enzyme that soon dissolves the insect. The pitcher plant’s meals include not only insects but also mites, spiders, and, occasionally, a small frog. The pitcher plant grows in bogs, savannas, and wooded areas of the South from Florida to Mississippi, and north to Virginia and Maryland where insects are plentiful!

• How do carnivorous plants digest their prey?
• What are carnivorous plants?
• What is an asteroid?
• Are all flowers fragrant?
• Which flowering plant can you float on?
• Which is the smallest flower in the world?
• What it the largest flower in the world?
• Can you eat flowers?
• Do all flowers close up at night?
• What makes a plant bloom at the right time of year?
• Why are so many flowers brightly colored?
• What is the difference between annual, perennial, and biennial flowers?
• When did the first flowers bloom?
• What are comets?
• What is the difference between a bulb, a corm, and a tuber?
• Are there plants that do not grow from seeds?
• What is the difference between self pollination and cross pollination?
• Does the expression “Open sesame!” have anything to do with sesame seeds?
• How do flowering plants make their seeds?
• Which plant spreads its seeds with the help of children at play?