Secreted pitfall-trap fluid of carnivorous Nepenthes plants is unsuitable for microbial growth

Abstract

The secreted liquid of closed and freshly opened Nepenthes pitchers is exclusively plant-derived. It is unsuitable to serve as an environment for microbial growth. Thus, Nepenthes plants can avoid and control, at least to some extent, the microbial colonization of their pitfall traps and, thereby, reduce the need to vie with microbes for the prey-derived nutrients.