The Heartlands Direhorse Pitcher Plant is a type of Direhorse Pitcher Plant that direhorse love to drink nectar from. Touching the plant releases the aroma of the nectar and attracts a direhorse. It can be found throughout the Heart of the Plains.
Botanical Description[]
Large, beautiful pitcher-shaped plant with bright coloring. Contains abundant nectar that attract direhorse.
Large tubular plant body has coevolved with the direhorse, which feeds on the nectar at the base of the tube.
Na'vi cultivate the plant as food source for direhorse and themselves.
Although related to other tubular, pitcher-shaped carnivorous plants, the direhorse pitcher plant is not carnivorous. Its green modified leaves are capable of photosynthesis and its root obtain the nutrients it needs from the soil. This plant has co-evolved with the direhorse, whose snout fits perfectly into the tubular plant body to feed on the nectar located at the base of the plant. Flowers are produced just inside the tube, hidden from view.
When the direhorse inserts its snout to feed the nectar, its head brushes against the flower and gets covered with sticky pollen grains, which are transferred to others plants as the direhorse continues to feed. Although large pollinators such as lemurs and possums are known on Earth, this is the first plant-pollinator syndrome to be discovered that involved an animal as large as a horse.
The Na'vi cultivate direhorse pitcher plants to attract and feed direhorses and also to collect the sweet nectar for their own consumption.