Nepenthes, commonly known as the Hanging or Asian Pitcher Plants, doubtless are the most ostentatious carnivorous plants next to the Venus flytrap. Among the most flamboyant and colorful of all plants, they are also extremes in carnivory, for Nepenthes are the only plants in the world that can be said to somewhat regularly eat vertebrates in the wild - small lizards, mice, and even rats have been found digesting in their orchid-like traps. The genus occupies a vast natural range, spanning from Madagascar and the Seychelles, India and Indochina, throughout the innumerable islands of Southeast Asia and through the northeastern cape of Australia. Such a gigantic distribution has shown that Nepenthes, all 170+ species of them, have adopted countless forms, from the squat, ground-hugging detritivores, to tall arcing vines, some with tiny speckled traps like miniature wine glasses, others grown beastly, with sharp hook-lined gullets that drown rodents, and some remarkable species even bear pitchers which serve as roosts for bats!
