Cobra Lily

This is a Cobra Lily, a carnivorous plant that grows in a very limited area in southwestern Oregon and northwestern California. It prefers serpentine seeps and bogs and often grows in huge numbers. This is the modified leaf that actually captures the insects. It is a hollow tube with an opening behind the fangs through which an insect enters. The translucent "windows" at the top of the tube confuse the insect which cannot find its way out and eventually falls to the bottom of the tube where it is absorbed by the plant. Oneof the insets show a seed pod and I've included as an inset an older photo of the flower. These were photographed in a bog in Oregon.