It is common in Borneo and parts of the Riau Archipelago, but has a restricted distribution in both Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra.

It produces two distinct types of pitchers (heavily modified leaves), which are used to capture and kill insect prey for nutrients.

The species is widely variable and comes in a variety of shapes and colors – most contain varying amounts of green, white, and maroon streaks.

All Nepenthes are passive carnivores with no moving parts, unlike their distant cousins the Venus flytrap.

Nepenthes rafflesiana kills by luring its prey into its pitchers, whose peristomes secrete a sweet-tasting nectar.

Sir S. Raffles is anxious that we should give publicity to our researches in one way or other and has planned bringing out something at Bencoolen.

He proposes sending home these pitcher-plants that such splendid things may appear under all the advantages of elegant execution, by way of attracting attention to the subject of Sumatran botany.At the time the largest known species in the genus, N. rafflesiana was described in the Gardener's and Farmer's Journal for 1850 as follows:[3] Whoever has seen this plant in a living state must undoubted be constrained to consider it as one of the most astonishing productions of the whole vegetable kingdom.

The resemblance that a portion of it bears to our more familiar domestic utensils leaves a lasting impression on the minds of spectators that is not easily eradicated; it is the largest and most magnificent of the genus, far surpassing any hitherto known in Europe.Nepenthes rafflesiana is very popular in cultivation; it is a lowland Nepenthes (enjoying hot, humid conditions most of the time, as found in tropical jungle lowlands) but can be grown as an intermediate, with cooler nights and less humidity.

The plant should be grown in shaded conditions, diffuse sunlight, or in a large grow chamber under artificial lights.

The digestive enzymes present have not evolved to handle large prey items, and the rotting material gives opportunistic bacteria and fungi a chance to take hold.

[10] Giant plants of N. rafflesiana have been recorded from a number of isolated localities on the northwestern coast of Borneo and one population has been found near the seaside town of Sematan, around 110 km west of Kuching.

Both this characteristic and the plant's exceptional size are exhibited by cultivated specimens and thus they cannot be due to unusual environmental factors.

Most wild populations of Nepenthes, including N. rafflesiana, are endangered due to habitat destruction and (to a lesser extent) poaching.

N. rafflesiana is currently listed as a CITES Appendix II plant, so it does have some international trade restrictions (though not an outright ban).