Protocarnivorous plant

A plant that captures or traps prey but lacks one or more traits of full carnivory, such as digesting prey or absorbing nutrients from it.

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Carnivorous plant: A plant that attracts, captures, digests prey, and absorbs nutrients from it. This is the full functional category that protocarnivorous plants approach but do not meet.
Pitfall trap: A trap in which prey falls into a cavity and has difficulty escaping. Some protocarnivorous plants use pitfall-like structures that capture animals without digesting them.
Roridula: A South African genus of sticky-leaved plants that capture insects but do not digest them with their own enzymes. Its prey-derived nutrients depend on a mutualistic bug that consumes trapped insects.
Carnivory in plants: The acquisition of nutrients by plants through capturing and digesting animals. Protocarnivory is defined by falling short of one or more functions in this broader phenomenon.
Plant defense against herbivory: Traits and processes that reduce damage to plants from animals that eat them. Trapping animals can resemble defense, but protocarnivory captures prey rather than merely deterring herbivores.
Sticky trap: A prey-capture structure that immobilizes animals with adhesive secretions. Adhesive capture can occur without the digestive enzymes characteristic of full carnivory.
Drosophyllum lusitanicum: A sticky-leaved Mediterranean plant that captures insects and digests them with enzyme-secreting glands. Its demonstrated digestion makes it a useful comparison with plants called protocarnivorous.
Herbivory: The consumption of plant tissues by animals. The same trapped animal may be a prey item or a plant-eater, depending on the interaction.
Mimicry: An evolved resemblance in which one organism gains an advantage by resembling another organism or feature. Some borderline traps may attract prey through resemblance without digesting or nutritionally exploiting it.
Digestive enzyme: A biological catalyst that breaks complex molecules into smaller products through chemical reactions. The absence or weakness of prey-digesting enzymes can distinguish a trap from a carnivorous plant.