The cobra's tongue: Rethinking the function of the “fishtail appendage” on the pitcher plant Darlingtonia californica

Abstract

These results call into question the longstanding assumption that the fishtail appendage on Darlingtonia is an adaptation critical for the attraction and capture of prey. I suggest alternative evolutionary explanations for the role of the fishtail structure and repropose a hypothesis on the mutualistic nature of pitcher plant-arthropod trophic interactions.