Largest cultivated carnivorous plant trap (by volume)

The largest cultivated carnivorous plant trap by volume is 2.986 litres (101 fl oz) for a pitcher belonging to a cultivar of the hybrid Nepenthes sibuyanensis x merrilliana – provisionally designated Nepenthes ‘Titanic’ – grown by Robert and Diana Cantley (both UK) and the team at Borneo Exotics in Lindula, Sri Lanka. It was measured on 16 April 2025.

The giant pitcher trap measured 47 cm (1 ft 6.5 in) tall from base to lid and 46 cm (1 ft 6.1 in) in circumference at its broadest point.

The cultivar was isolated from seed harvested on 8 June 2009 from a female N. sibuyanensis pollinated with a male N. merrilliana (both species that are native to different areas of the Philippines). The plant that bore this superlative trap was one of several clones developed from that original batch of seed. It is clone # 20 selected out of 24 candidate clones as having the largest traps.

Borneo Exotics is one of the world’s foremost producers of tropical pitcher plants, with the Cantleys boasting more than 45 years' experience of research, conservation and hybridization of Nepenthes plants. The Borneo Exotics team have won numerous awards for their cultivated pitcher plants (including multiple gold medals from the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show), and Robert has chaired the IUCN SSC Carnivorous Plant Specialist Group for the past 12 years.

There are reports of traps observed in the wild on species such as the giant montane pitcher (N. rajah) in the rainforest of Malaysian Borneo that also reach more than 40 cm (1 ft 3 in) tall and able to hold perhaps as much as 3.5 litres (118 fl oz) of water – big enough for small rodents to be among their prey. However these are likely based on approximations while in the field, rather than more precise measurements as were conducted here.