Nepenthes truncata Flowering

Nepenthes truncata with traps and flowers at the UConn EEB greenhouses, May 2017.

Nepenthes, the tropical pitcher plants, are carnivorous plants with passive pitfall-type traps. The traps are modified leaf blades, borne on the tips of long petioles and attached to expanded leaf bases that resemble the blades of more typical foliage. Nepenthes truncata, from the Philippines, is one of the largest tropical pitcher plants, with traps that can hold a liter or more of digestive fluid and probably catch the occasional lizard or mouse, in additional to more typical insect prey.

Nepenthes truncata, raceme of flowers on a male plant.

Nepenthes have small, dark or greenish flowers in tall racemes, with males and females on separate plants (Nepenthes are dioecious). All of the species that I have encountered produce a floral scent that is more or less unpleasantly musty. In N. truncata, the odor of the flowers is particularly offensive, and can permeate an entire greenhouse with a rank, surprisingly animal-like smell, reminiscent of something from a zoo.