The appearance of this plant may seem amusing, but picking it would endanger the species. This plant only grows in very remote areas at latitudes above 600 meters, so locating and capturing a picture with the pitcher plant has become a sort of challenge for some enthusiasts in Cambodia and the Philippines. The plant was historically thought to only exist in the Cardamom Mountains, but in 2011, a new population was discovered further east.
In March 2019, images of a plant dubbed the 'penis flytrap' went viral. The name was a play on words that evoked the plant Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula), which, in turn, could be an oblique reference to its resemblance to human female genitalia. Here's what the Venus flytrap looks like, to start with. Now, let's go back to the phallic-looking one. The plant belongs to the Nepenthes genus and is found in the Philippines.
Though the origin of the image (see full version below) is unknown, Snopes has done a fact-check and concluded that the photograph is authentic and shows the above-mentioned plant. They even asked Clinton Morse, the living plant collections manager at the University of Connecticut's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, about the photograph, and he answered as follows:
"It is certainly a Nepenthes species and certainly looks like an authentic image. ... All Nepenthes have a similar passive pitfall trap that develops with a closed trap, and as the trap matures, the 'lid' opens up. The pitchers in the attached image are just starting to open, thus giving them a rather penile appearance. I've never heard of them being called 'penis flytrap,' but it is a rather accurate descriptive name."
So, the photos most probably show Nepenthes philippinensis, a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Philippines. It is found on Palawan and the neighboring Calamian Islands (including Busuanga, Coron, and Culion) and Linapacan, where it grows at 0–600 meters (2,000 ft) above sea level. The plant becomes a bit less phallic-looking (as opposed to the phase that has been described as 'penile' by some commenters) once the pit trap is fully matured and the lid is opened. Then, the open trap fills with water to attract insects that fall into it, with the plant scavenging the nutrients in the decaying bodies, as described in a 1999 review of the genus' carnivorous behavior. So, if you explore and discover the mountains and regions of the Philippines, the chances are you will definitely recognize this plant should you come across it – in either phase.
