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Heliamphora, the Sun Pitchers

The Sun Pitchers are strange. Even among the weird --the animal eating plants--the Sun Pitchers (Heliamphora) stand out. No lurid colors, fangs, tentacles or slime mark them as killers. A Sun Pitcher is a sleek, subtly curved funnel. But it’s a trap. The deadly digestive broth at the bottom consists of bacteria, not enzymes. Like other carnivorous pitchers, it has four Death Zones inside: with downward pointing hairs at the bottom, slippery vertical surfaces, difficult terrain in the middle, sticky glands, and an irresistible lure at the top. But it’s the uppermost lure, an alien-looking spoon, or a futuristic satellite dish, at the top of each pitcher that makes the Sun Pitcher look like it has dropped in from another planet.

Sun Pitchers grow only on the isolated summits of the “tepui” or sandstone mesas of southern Venezuela, Guyana, and Northern Brazil, the legendary Lost World of film and fiction. The summits are blasted by near constant wind and heavy rainfall forming eerie and improbable geological shapes. The deep ridges and windswept canyons are shrouded by clouds and mist. Reaching the top requires a treacherous climb or a chartered helicopter, which is why the Sun Pitchers were undescribed until 1840.

The tepui form islands of vegetation that have evolved in isolation from the flora of the savannah below. Tepui flora is unique, and the plants are rare in cultivation. You can see the strange Sun Pitchers in our Tropical High Elevation House.

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