To find Philcoxia’s grisly secret, Caio Pereira had to look underground. The plant biologist from Unicamp, Brazil, found that the plant traps and digests tiny worms with sticky underground leaves.

Plants have evolved to eat animals at least six times, and over 600 species of them now do so. They catch their prey with slippery water-filled pitchers, fast-snapping traps, sticky leaves and sucking bladders. Their strategies are diverse, but they all tend to grow in areas that are poor in nutrients. For example, familiar species like the Venus’ fly trap and the sundew live in bogs and swamps. In such inhospitable environments, these plants supplement their supplies of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients by feasting on