Intoxicating liquor: The boundless research potential of pitcher plants

The rarity and otherness of carnivorous plants have captivated the imaginations of natural historians for centuries. However, in the relentless pursuit of generality, modern ecology often neglects to engage with the minutiae of organisms seen as "outliers" in nature. Here, I discuss how my utilitarian study of the pitcher plant microbiome expanded into a near-limitless body of research on the organism’s natural history — including on the functioning of its "tongue" appendage, its incapacitating liquor, and the role of its transparent fenestrae. More natural history studies are essential for the development of pitcher plants as model systems in community ecology.