Nine species of pitcher plants
or Nepenthes have been discovered in Kinabalu Park,
and three of these are found nowhere else in the world since a huge pitcher plants
containing a drowned rat, four litres of liquid, and rotten insect bodies were reported
from Mt. Kinabalu over a century ago. This plant is the shape of a cup and has also been
given the nick name "Monkey Cup".
Insects are attracted to sweet nectar secreted from glands near the
mouth of the pitchers. Upon entering the cup, insects slide down the slippery sides; their
escape out is blocked by downward pointing spines. The animals eventually drown in the
slimy ooze at the bottom and are digested. The plant absorbs its lunch through the walls
of the leaf. Thus pitcher plants can grow in areas with poor soil, getting their
nourishment from the insect corpses.