monkey cup

When I first saw the term monkey cup, I was wonder what it was until I saw the story in the local newspaper about the showcase garden built in Penang Hill.


Monkey cup is in fact the name of a group of plants. They are are carnivorous plants that can survive in the poor soil condition. It has a canny way to get the food by using a cup to trap its food. The cup is fill with special liquid that dissolve the unlucky animals that fall into the trap.

The area surrounding the lip, near the opening, is coated with slippery chemical that prevent the animal from escaping. In some variety, the cup has a special cover that will close when an animal fall.

The garden in Penang contains plants from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and and India. The major variety is the local Malaysian. The biggest is truncata from Philippines. The cup is jug size.

There many variety of hybrid nepenthes throughout the garden. You can also find the species from north america, the sarracenia. It look beautiful with the red colorful petals.