Bat pitcher plant

Like Low's pitcher plant and the king pitcher plant, the pitchers of this Bornean species capture animal faeces, but in a radically different way. The plant's long, slender pitchers lack the strong fragrance and copious nectar produced by most pitcher plants, and so this species traps fewer insects.

Remarkably though, the pitchers of this plant provide a daytime roosting site for woolly bats. The pitchers have a prominant ridge onto which the bats can cling, and an enlarged opening that effectively reflects the ultrasound calls of the bats, enabling them to locate the plant among dense vegetation. This incredible relationship benefits both the bat, which uses the pitchers as a safe roosting site, and the plant, which is nourished by the bat droppings in the nutrient-poor heath forests where it grows.