Lady's Lace [Carnivorous Plant] aka Nepenthe

A Carnivorous Plant aka Pitcher Plant from Pelling, West Sikkim. Probably the Indian Nepenthe found in Malaysia, Australia and India mostly.

Background is the Mighty Kanchenjunga Range with the Kanchenjunga visible in the second from left on a sunny morning!

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap.

Whatever their evolutionary origins, foraging, flying or crawling insects such as flies are attracted to the cavity formed by the cupped leaf, often by visual lures such as anthocyanin pigments, and nectar bribes.

The sides of the pitcher are slippery and may be grooved in such a way so as to ensure that the insects cannot climb out. The small bodies of liquid contained within the pitcher traps are called phytotelmata. They drown the insect, and the body of it is gradually dissolved.

This may occur by bacterial action (the bacteria being washed into the pitcher by rainfall) or by enzymes secreted by the plant itself.

Furthermore, some pitcher plants contain mutualistic insect larvae, which feed on trapped prey, and whose excreta the plant absorbs.

Whatever the mechanism of digestion, the prey items are converted into a solution of amino acids, peptides, phosphates, ammonium and urea, from which the plant obtains its mineral nutrition (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus).

** Like all carnivorous plants, they occur in locations where the soil is too poor in minerals and/or too acidic for most plants to be able to grow.

** That is quite acceptable, as the soil in the state of Sikkim is mostly contained of Limestone gravel and brown clay loose and pathetic. I traveled the North Extreme, West and East Extreme and South of Sikkim. Every district has a distinct difference and established how extreme can the Himalayan range can make a certain geography!

Sikkim soil as I noticed was mostly made of Rock soil, and highly acidic may be, while the soil is very loose and poor. There is a lot of Erosion and land slide every where, none of the uninhabited mountains are firm, they erode in every direction and Hats-Off to the Border Roads Organization to have braved life to lay the roads all over Sikkim - Out Border state! Soil is mainly made of Schists[a type of metamorphic rock] with certain minerals that is loose. The right type to support the evergreen forests, unlike the Deccan Plateau and the Nilgiris.

Carpeted Roads are a dream come true in Sikkim's northern districts and I salute the Indian Army and the BRO for taking extreme steps with the Local support to lay the what ever roads available there. Roads are extremely dangerous here as the mountains tend to erode as it pleases, just because the geology is such!!

Source: Wikipedia