Cobra Lily

The cobra lily is a carnivorous plant found in the boggy seeps and streams of northern California and southern Oregon, named for its hooded, forked leaf that resembles a rearing cobra. Insects are lured into the hood through a translucent, light-admitting dome that confuses them into searching for a false exit, eventually leading them down into a tube lined with downward-pointing hairs from which they cannot escape. The trapped insects are broken down largely by bacteria and other organisms living within the trap rather than by the plant's own enzymes, and the plant absorbs the resulting nutrients.