Jack-in-the-Pulpit: an apprentice carnivore?

Probably the first week out for this crazy-shaped flower. Photo by lexie_woodss on Instagram.

This jaunty striped flower gives us a whole new flower-part vocabulary.

Here we go: The pitcher-shaped part we see (the ‘pulpit’) is actually a leaf in the form of a “spathe” that hangs over the flower like a tarp. The flower, in this plant called a spadix (a spike with female and/or male flowers on it) is hidden inside the pulpit: it’s Jack, and sometimes Jill, or Jill-Jack because of its ability to change sex over the season.

The spathe’s overhang keeps the flowers dry so pollen doesn’t drain away. Who is tasked with transporting that crucial pollen? Fungus gnats. Your new band name.

So the fungus gnats with pollen-covered bodies can leave the male flower through a hole in the bottom, but when they bring that pollen to the female flower, there’s no hole to escape, and there they rest forevermore. I hope they're thanked for their service.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit isn’t a carnivore. But because the plant benefits (somewhat, somehow?) from the decomposed bugs in the bottom, some scientists think it’s evolving to become a meat-eater like the pitcher plant.

Is it evolution happening before our eyes?