pitcher plant

noun

: a plant (especially family Sarraceniaceae, the pitcher-plant family) with pitcher-shaped leaves in which insects are trapped and digested by means of a fluid secreted by the leaves

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

After propagating the purple pitcher plant, those involved in the project reintroduce plants into the wild. —Sarah Jay, Discover Magazine, 17 Dec. 2021

Samantha Stephens, a Canadian photographer, took home this year’s top prize with her otherworldly image of a carnivorous pitcher plant preparing to devour a pair of dead salamanders near the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station in Ontario, Canada. —Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Jan. 2023

Fairhope should all be pitcher plant bogs. —al, 15 Aug. 2022

Oh, to be a pitcher plant. —Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 12 Jan. 2018

One evolutionary step that has many biologists puzzled is where the pitcher plant leaf shape came from. —Leslie Nemo, Discover Magazine, 28 Oct. 2020

And check out a handful of waterfalls situated amid an unusually diverse range of flora, like the endangered Kral’s water plantain and carnivorous green pitcher plant. —Alison Van Houten, Outside Online, 6 June 2019

Bacteria facilitate prey retention by the pitcher plant Darlingtonia californica. —Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 12 Dec. 2016

Canadian photographer Samantha Stephens has been awarded the title Close-up Photographer of the Year, with her striking image of a pair of salamanders being consumed by a carnivorous pitcher plant in Algonquin Provincial Park, Canada. —Cecilia Rodriguez, Forbes, 5 Feb. 2023

See More

Word History

First Known Use

1810, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

pitcher plant

noun

: any of various plants with modified leaves which form a tube resembling a pitcher for catching and digesting insects