Insects and other small invertebrates are attracted to the plant (often by nectar produced at the rim) and fall into the fluid, where they drown and are gradually digested, releasing the nitrogen and phosphorus that the plant cannot obtain from the soil.

These plants are not just biologically interesting.

They are visually extraordinary — small, sculptural, glistening with rain and nectar, scattered across the dark rock and sparse vegetation of the summit in concentrations that make a Roraima summit bog look like a garden from an alien world.

The Drosera (sundews) are equally dramatic at a smaller scale.

Their leaves are covered with tentacle-like structures topped with glistening drops of a sticky mucilage.

These drops catch insects that land on the leaf surface, and the tentacles slowly curl inward to press the prey against the leaf surface where it is digested.