Triphyophyllum peltatum

Triphyophyllum peltatum is a facultatively carnivorous, up to tall vine in the monotypic genus Triphyophyllum in the family Dioncophyllaceae native to tropical western Africa, in Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, and Sierra Leone where it grows in tropical rainforest.

==Description== thumb|Flower, fruit and ripe seed of the adult plant thumb|Juvenile non climbing insectivorous stage of Triphyophyllum with entire leaves and a single glandular insectivorous leaf resembling those of Drosophyllum thumb|Unfurling tip of a juvenile insectivorous leaf with stalked glands in the SEM ===Vegetative characteristics=== It is a facultatively carnivorous, heterophyllous, up to tall vine with glabrous, terete stems. It has a three-stage lifecycle, each with a different shaped leaf, as indicated by its Greek name. In the first stage, T. peltatum forms a rosette of simple lanceolate Dracaena-like leaves about in length with undulate margins. At times when there is insufficient phosphorus in the soil it develops long, slender, glandular, circinate leaves up to in length and bearing two sorts of glands, and resembling those of the related Drosophyllum, which capture insects; there being one to three of these leaves in each rosette. In the plant's adult liana form it has short non-carnivorous leaves bearing a pair of "grappling hooks" at their tips on a long twining stem which can become in length and thick. T. peltatum is the largest of all confirmed carnivorous plants in the world, but its carnivorous nature did not become known until 1979, over 50 years after the plant's scientific description.