Do truly gargantuan pitcher plants, bearing
pitchers far greater and more capacious in size than those of any species
currently known to science, still await formal discovery and description?
(public domain)
As someone with a longstanding interest in reports
of giant but scientifically-unconfirmed forms of carnivorous plant, in my book The Beasts That Hide From Man (2003) I
compiled a detailed chapter of accounts relating to this fascinating subject,
and which remains the most extensive single coverage of it ever published. They
included such infamous examples as the reputed but highly implausible Madagascan
man-eating tree (click also here), a range of ferocious flora from Mexico, Central, and South America, and even a still-unidentified mouse-eating plant from
India that was once supposedly on public display in London.
During the 15 years that have passed since my above-noted
book was published, I have obtained information concerning several additional
but equally mysterious examples, and I may well prepare a sequel chapter in
some future book or possibly an article for a periodical or for online reading
here on ShukerNature. However, although collectively they allegedly exhibit a
wide diversity of forms and prey-capturing techniques, not one of these
contentious botanical beasts has ever been of the pitcher plant persuasion –
until now.
Chromolithograph depicting pitcher
plants, Venus flytraps, and other known types of carnivorous plant (public
domain)
Pitcher plants famously possess deep liquid-filled
cavities, the liquid being produced by the plants as a combined drowning agent
and digestive fluid, and the pitchers typically forming from either specialised
cupped leaves or buds, into which they entice small crawling or flying insects,
utilising eyecatching pigments or nectar bribes. Once inside a pitcher, the
insect cannot escape, the pitcher's internal wall being extremely slippery and
sometimes bearing downward-curving spine-like hairs too, which prevent its hapless
victim from exiting, so it ultimately drowns in the liquid, whereupon its body duly
dissolves, and its nutritional constituents are then absorbed by the plant,
often via glands in the pitcher's lower regions.
Happily, however, as will be discussed in more
detail later, even the largest of these fiendish botanical snares are of only
quite modest dimensions, incapable of trapping anything bigger than a small
lizard or rodent – all of which is why the following case, recently discovered
online by me but not previously formally documented and examined, is so
fascinating, and not a little frightening too.
Prof. Ernst Haeckel's spectacular
montage of Nepenthes pitcher plants from his gorgeously-illustrated
two-volume work Kunstformen der Natur ('Art Forms in Nature'), published
in 1904 (public domain)
While browsing the Net in search of possible
additional reports to add to those already collected by me for inclusion in my
above-proposed sequel to my chapter on mystery carnivorous plants, I spotted on
YouTube a video that promised from its title to be a possible source of such
reports. Entitled 'Cryptobotany: Five Cryptid Plants' (click here to view it),
it was uploaded on 23 April 2017 by someone with the user
name 'Truth is scarier than fiction'. Watching it, I was initially
disappointed, as I was already familiar with all five of the mystery plants
referred to in it, but then I looked at the comments that had been posted below
it, and my disappointment dissipated immediately as I read the astonishing
two-comment eyewitness account that had been posted in May 2017 by a viewer
named Kai Russell. Here are the relevant details from that account:
Ok so I
live in the Pine Barrens of NJ, USA and when I was about 12 me and my older
cousin walked 5+ miles into the wilderness (he was hunting I was just along for
the adventure) and Midway through the day we come across a 4 or 5
ft high weird type of pitcher plant. My cousin who was around 26 or 27
at that time knew it wasn't the normal type of pitcher plant we see in the
area. It was oozing a purple ish white thick sap that look liked purple ish
Marshmellow fluff and it smelled like a rotten corpse. Long story short... we
got home and did research...the plant doesn't exist, or should I say isn't
recognized by science. The pitcher part of the plant was 80% of the plant while
the known pitcher plants have these little tiny Pitchers. The plant looked like
it was from the rain Forest or was CGI from the movie journey to the center of
the earth. We didn't touch the thing but I wish we would have opened the
pitcher...it could have been a deer in it rotting away, it was that big and
wide, skinnier at the top and bottom. I went to the spot 8 years later and
couldn't find the plant...I've been there 5+ times since I'm now 26 and haven't
seen it since 12 and my memory of the directions of getting to the general area
of the plant are slipping each type....someone tell me they've seen an
unidentified plant because I've never heard of anyone else having seen one.
That is
actually the first time either of us have said anything outside the family. The
area we were when we encountered this is probably 15 to 20 miles from the Pygmy Forest in NJ. It's an area of
pine trees that grow only 4 ft tall for some reason
(I don't think science knows) but the pine barrens has a decent about [sic
– amount] of organisms that are only found here, those dwarf pine trees are one
of them. You can get an idea of the area if you search Dwarf pine forest New Jersey or Pygmy Forest NJ. Ironically I've
witnessed triangle shape UFOs in the area as well and if you look it up you can
find the news story because a lot of others witnessed these too. Not saying
they are connected. It's a weird area for sure.
If this report is genuine, and obviously there is
no way of knowing for certain without any independent corroboration, then the
plant described in it is truly exceptional – indeed, truly monstrous – for several
very different reasons. But before proceeding any further, it would be
worthwhile to put this case in context by reviewing the basic attributes and
geographical distribution of the various types of pitcher plant that are already
known to science.
Exquisite illustration depicting
three species of Nepenthes pitcher plant, from Flore des Serres et
des Jardin de l’Europe, vol. 22, (1845) – click to enlarge for reading the
original, inset caption identifying these species (public domain)
Pitcher plants occur in various forms and
constitute several different taxonomic families, of which the largest and best
known is Nepenthaceae. This family contains approximately 150 species as well
as numerous hybrids and cultivars but all belonging to the single genus Nepenthes.
Native to the Old World (predominantly southeastern Asia but also Madagascar, Sri Lanka, New Guinea, and northernmost Australia), these are the ones whose sometimes sizeable and
often very brightly-coloured pitchers are featured so frequently in television
documentaries concerning tropical forests.
Nepenthes northiana, painted by English biologist/botanical artist Marianne North (1830-1890) and named
in her honour (public domain)
These plants' pitchers begin as buds and are borne
at the end of tendrils extending from the midribs of normal leaves. They sport
a small lid acting as a landing strip for insects, which, once upon it, are
then attracted by nectar lures and colouration to a very noticeable ribbed rim
or peristome, brightly-hued but so slippery that when they land or crawl upon
it they slip inside the pitcher. And once inside, the pitcher's highly-waxed,
equally slippery internal wall is very effective in prevents them from crawling
back out and escaping. Instead, they inevitably fall into the pitcher's
digestive juice and drown, with their bodies' nutrients then being assimilated
into the plant, leaving their carcases to collect at the bottom of the pitcher.
The largest pitchers of Nepenthes pitcher
plants hang so low to the ground that they actually rest upon it, and these can
grow to an impressive size, capable of holding up to around 4.5 pints of liquid and big enough for creatures as large as
rats and lizards to drown inside them. Nevertheless, it is nothing if not
interesting to recall that the largest example of a pitcher so far recorded,
growing on a specimen of N. rajah (native to Mounts Kinabalu and
Tambuyukon in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo), remained
undocumented by science until as recently as 26 March 2011. This was when it
was encountered during a Sabah Society visit to Mesilau, on the east ridge of Mt Kinabalu. Measured by Alex Lamb, a member of
that visiting team, it was found to be a record-breaking 16 in tall and extremely capacious, and it was then collected
for preservation at Mesilau Headquarters.
Nepenthes rajah, depicted in Sir Spenser St. John's two-volume
tome Life in the Forests of the Far East; Or Travels in Northern Borneo (1863)
(public domain)
The pitcher plants native to North America, the
so-called trumpet pitchers of the family Sarraceniaeceae, constituting a single
genus Sarracenia that contains 8-11 species (depending upon individual
opinion), are smaller, with pitchers of no more than 8 in at most, sometimes held horizontally, and consisting
of leaves that have evolved into a long slim funnel or pitcher form.
However, the
pitchers look and function in much the same way as those of Nepenthes
species, except that they additionally possess a much more sizeable lid-like
operculum that helps to prevent rainwater entering the pitcher and diluting its
digestive fluid. The slippery inner wall of the pitchers also bears fine
downward-pointing hairs that provide further difficulties for any insect
attempting to crawl back out.
The purple trumpet pitcher plant Sarracenia purpurea, as depicted in American Medicinal Plants: An Illustrated and Descriptive Guide to the American Plants Used as Homopathic [sic] Remedies (1887) (public domain)
Closely related to the trumpet pitchers and housed
within the same taxonomic family is the very distinctive-looking cobra plant Darlingtonia
californica, native to California and Oregon. Its tall tubular pitcher-yielding leaves (up to 3 ft tall but far less capacious than those of the Nepenthes
species) earn this species its memorable common name by the fancied resemblance
of each of them to the rearing head of a cobra, complete with a forked leaf
resembling a cobra's paired fangs or forked tongue, the forked leaf serving to
attract insects and act as landing strips for them.
Somewhat sadistically, this
pitcher plant species is unique in providing several false exits from its
pitcher, each of which tempts its trapped victims to crawl towards it, hoping
to escape, but only to fail time and again when they invariably discover that
the apparent exit is not an exit at all, until finally they become so exhausted
that they fall down into the digestive fluid and die.
Cobra plants Darlingtonia californica
– a beautiful chromolithograph from The Floral magazine (1869) (public
domain)
Also contained within the taxonomic family of
trumpet pitchers are the 23 species of South American marsh-dwelling pitcher
plant belonging to the genus Heliamphora. In these species, the pitcher
consists of a folded leaf whose edges are fused together into a tubular shape.
Depending upon the species, the pitchers range from just a couple of inches
tall (in H. minor and H. pulchella) to over 20 in tall (in H. ionasi).
Completing the preponderance of pitcher plants
around the world is their sole Antipodean representative, the Albany pitcher plant Cephalotus follicularis,
limited to just a single location in southwestern Australia and the only member of its taxonomic family,
Cephalotaceae. Its pitchers are only around 2 in long, and resemble moccasin shoes.
The pitchers of Australia's Albany pitcher plant – illustration from Curtis's
Botanical Magazine, vol. 58 (1831) (public domain)
Re-reading Kai Russell's claimed sighting of the mystery
mega-pitcher plant from New Jersey, USA, in light of what I have written above
regarding the much smaller, known pitcher plant species on file, a number of points
relating to the plausibility or otherwise of the former immediately come to
mind. Namely, this crypto-plant's size and, as a result of that, its likely
prey; its solitary pitcher plus its own solitary presence; and the apparent
lack of knowledge concerning it among anyone else in the vicinity.
The truly monstrous, enormous size of this mystery
pitcher plant is such that doubts as to its reality were uppermost in my mind from
the very moment when I first read Russell's testimony. After all, it is not
merely twice or even three times taller than known pitcher plant species – at an
estimated 4 to 5 ft tall, its pitcher is 6 to 7.5 times taller than
those of known American pitchers (Sarracenia spp.), and is even 3 to 3.75
times taller than the tallest pitcher specimen ever confirmed for any recognised
species (i.e. the 16-in pitcher from a Nepenthes rajah plant in Borneo mentioned
earlier here). Yet we are expected to believe that such a truly spectacular, immense
species has remained undiscovered by science, and not even amid the dense,
sometimes scarcely penetrable, hostile rainforests of southeast Asia but merely
in a far from inaccessible or inhospitable area of North American wilderness in
New Jersey?
Nepenthes rajah pitchers, from Curtis’s Botanical
Magazine, vol. 131 - series 4, vol. 1 (1905) (public domain)
Moreover, this mystery plant's huge pitcher size
leads me inevitably to contemplate why it is so huge – what potential prey
could have incited the evolution of such a vastly-capacious vessel in order to
ensnare it? With smaller pitchers, their prey are in turn much less robust and
hence far less capable of escaping from the pitcher than anything big enough to
find itself inside the giant pitcher of this mystery plant. Russell speculated
that perhaps its pitcher contained a deer – but how would a deer come to be
inside such a pitcher in the first place? It wouldn’t simply drop (or fly)
inside, in the way that insects and very small vertebrates like tiny lizards or
frogs do with normal-sized pitchers – instead, it would have to physically jump
inside, but what would induce it to do that? And even if it did do so, what was
to stop it simply jumping back out again?
True, Russell noted that he wished that he and his
companion had opened the pitcher, this comment thereby implying that the
pitcher possessed an operculum, serving as a lid, as do the pitchers of various
smaller, known species of pitcher plant. Yet even if such a lid were indeed
present, could it really be firm enough to prevent something as large and
powerful as a deer from forcing its way out? And in any case, what could such a
plant do if a trapped, panic-stricken deer began kicking at the pitcher's
enclosing wall with its sharp hooves, tearing holes in it? It would need to be
an exceptionally sturdy, thick-walled pitcher to withstand such activity and
prevent the deer from breaking out through it.
Cobra plant pitchers can be up to 3 ft tall, but are far less capacious and
sturdy than typical pitcher plants' pitchers – illustration from c.1871 (public
domain)
Perhaps Russell was wrong in assuming that because
of its huge size, the plant's pitcher could have been containing a deer – was it
the extremely noxious stench, redolent of rotting flesh, emanating from the
purplish-white marshmallow-like 'sap' oozing forth from the pitcher that had inspired
this assumption on his part? Perhaps instead of a single very large prey
victim, the pitcher actually contained the carcases of several smaller victims,
such as rats, opossums, snakes, or other small/medium-sized vertebrates. Yet
even less sizeable species like these are still sufficiently robust, surely, to
be able to clamber back out again if for any reason they should have initially
fallen or climbed into the pitcher (lured, perhaps, by some inviting scent?) –
unless, of course, the inner walls of the pitcher are, as in smaller versions,
too slippery to provide them with footholds when attempting to climb out, so
that they eventually drown in the digestive juices presumably present inside
the pitcher? Speaking of juices and fluids, just what was that vile-smelling
sap-like substance seeping from the mystery plant anyway? I've never heard of
anything like that in relation to known species of pitcher plant.
And why was there only one such pitcher present? In
known, smaller species of pitcher plant, more than one pitcher is produced simultaneously
per plant – I am not aware of any confirmed species that only yields a single
pitcher at any one time per plant. Given the huge size of the mystery plant's pitcher,
however, I can conceive of how basic evolutionary survival strategy may result
in a giant species producing just one huge pitcher as an alternative to a less
sizeable species producing several smaller pitchers. i.e. evoking the
phenomenon of r and K selection. An r selection strategy is one in which an
individual produces lots of small, simple offspring, whereas a K selection strategy
is one in which an individual produces fewer but larger, more complex offspring.
These two strategies thus represent diametrically opposite mechanisms for
utilising the same amount of physiological resources to achieve the same end,
i.e. the survival of sufficient offspring for their species to remain viable. Even
so, surely there would have been other such plants in the vicinity, not just
one plant with one pitcher? Or could it be that a very marked spacing apart of
specimens would be required in order for all of them to obtain sufficient prey
victims, with Russell and his companion simply not having conducted a sufficiently
wide search for further specimens?
Nepenthes masteriana pitcher plants, depicted by Jean
Linden, from L'Illustration Horticole, late 1800s - even these sizeable pitchers are produced as several per plant (public domain)
This unanswered query leads directly on to yet
another one – why was Russell unable to relocate this plant when he attempted
to do so at various times in the future? As it seems to me to be a completely
untenable, illogical assumption that only one such plant existed in this entire
area, a lone, unique specimen of a truly remarkable, novel species, even if he
had not rediscovered the actual specimen that he and his companion had
originally encountered he surely would have found others during his subsequent
searches in that same area? Perhaps the original one had died during the period
between his encounter with it and his first search for it afterwards, but others
would still be there, in the same general vicinity.
Last, but by no means least, is the seemingly
inexplicable scenario whereby no-one from that area is aware of such a plant's
existence there, based at least upon Russell's statement that he had never heard
of anyone else having seen one. Whereas cryptozoological entities are mobile
and therefore can be notoriously elusive and difficult to track down,
cryptobotanical (or cryptophytological) entities are by their very nature
stationary, immobile, and thereby much more likely both to be encountered and, certainly,
to be subsequently re-encountered. Consequently, anything as visually arresting
and thence memorable as a 4-5-ft tall pitcher plant is hardly likely to go unnoticed
or noticed but subsequently unrecalled by local people, especially hunters and
trekkers visiting the wild yet traversable area where it allegedly existed.
Could a pitcher plant grow large
enough for its pitcher(s) to engulf prey as large as fawns or even adult deer? (public
domain)
In summary: taking all of the above factors into
consideration, in my opinion this account of a giant pitcher plant potentially capable
of devouring prey the size of deer seems very difficult to accept. Having said
that, in the absence of any independent background details I am not entirely discounting
it either – perhaps there are ways of reconciling it with some known, or currently
unknown, species that I have failed to consider, although at present I am not personally
aware of any.
Nevertheless, and as always with such cases, I
would love to be proved wrong. So if anyone reading this ShukerNature article
can offer any additional information, thoughts, or opinions relating to its
subject, I'd greatly welcome seeing them posted in the comments section below.
Illustration from 1891 by Matilda Smith
of the historic first-ever flowering of a titan arum at Kew Gardens, England,
in 1879 – from Curtis's Botanical Magazine,
vol. 117 (public domain)
Interestingly, when reading Russell's statement
that the plant looked like something from a rainforest, an image suddenly
flashed into my mind of a very eyecatching giant plant species entirely unrelated
to pitchers but which did recall to a certain extent his description of the
mystery mega-pitcher, and which is indeed a rainforest species. The species in
question is the titan arum or corpse plant Amorphophallus titanum,
native to the rainforests of Indonesia's Greater Sundanese islands of Sumatra and Java. It consists of a somewhat pitcher-shaped bract known as a
spathe, out of the centre of which, during the blooming period of the plant's
existence, grows a very tall spine-like inflorescence, called the spadix – which
at up to 10 ft
in height is the tallest unbranched inflorescence of any plant species. Moreover,
the plant exudes a powerful stench reminiscent of rotting flesh, attracting
flies that inadvertently pollinate the plant when brushing against its male and
female flowers while seeking the non-existent carrion that they have been
fooled by the plant's scent into believing is there.
A titan arum prior to producing its tall, infamously
phallic spadix inside its sizeable and outwardly pitcher-like spathe but beginning
to emit its foul stink might, I suppose, be liable to be mistaken for a
veritable giant pitcher plant, although it does not possess any operculum – but
how could one explain the presence of such an exotic, tropical, exclusively
southeast Asian species (and one that even in cultivation is notoriously
difficult to maintain) surviving in the middle of a decidedly non-tropical wilderness
within New Jersey? To my mind, the presence there of such a plant would be no
less remarkable and mystifying than that of a bona fide scientifically-undiscovered
species of giant pitcher plant!
A titan arum in flower (public
domain)
Finally: I do actually know of – and have even
personally visited – one entirely genuine example of a giant pitcher plant,
albeit not of the living variety, sadly. You will no doubt have noted that I
made no mention in its caption or anywhere else in the present ShukerNature article
so far regarding the nature of the absolutely gargantuan pitcher plant depicted
in the very spectacular photograph opening this article, but now, having
inflamed your curiosity for long enough, all is finally revealed.
It is in fact a magnificent sculpture, an exceedingly
ornate water fountain, to be exact, standing more than 25 ft tall, which is situated right in the centre of Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Erected on Jalan Parlimen at the edge of Merdeka
Square by Kuala Lumpur City Hall and known officially as the Periuk Kera Fountain ('periuk kera' being
the local name for pitcher plants), it is made of fibre-glass and takes the
form of a gigantic tree stump around which the tendrils of no fewer than eight
colossal Nepenthes pitchers are entwined, with a torrent of water
cascading out of each pitcher. A beautiful pavilion has been constructed around
it, containing benches and with shade provided by lush bougainvillea. I was
fortunate enough to visit and photograph this fantastic creation when Mom and I
visited Kuala
Lumpur in
2005, and it was a truly breathtaking sight, entirely dwarfing my 5'10"
stature when I stood in front of its surreal and even very slightly sinister
enormity for Mom to snap the photo below. If ever there was an appropriate time
for that famous pantomime cry "It's behind you!" to echo forth, that
was definitely the time! Incidentally, if anyone knows who sculpted this superb
fountain and when it was officially unveiled to the public, I'd greatly
appreciate details.
Standing in front of the wonderful pitcher
plant-themed Periuk Kera Fountain in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during 2005 (© Dr Karl Shuker)
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