this is Nepenthes ampullaria, and they actually do this! they sit on the forest floor and eat leaf litter that falls into their pitchers, making them technically detritivores from our petty human meat-eating point of view.
the face of cannibalism
These are SO CUTE
Yeah it’s wild I mean technically plants already “feed on detritus” I guess, but they wait for those nutrients to integrate with the soil. This plant evolved to catch insects for extra nutrients, then stumbled onto the fact that it could just catch EVEN FRESHER DIRT instead.
I’ve heard anecdotes that staghorn ferns in the wild might do something similar but I can’t find much about that??
Pre-dirt dirt!
i didn’t even consider this…..pre-dirt dirt……what do i do with this information…..
