A newly discovered carnivorous plant in the central Philippines is large enough to catch a rat, according to a story by the BBC. Nepenthes attenboroughii, named after naturalist and broadcast David Attenborough, is a member of the pitcher plant family, so-called because it is shaped like a large pitcher. The plant preys on insects and animals that fall into its gaping maw.
“The plant is among the largest of all carnivorous plant species and produces spectacular traps as large as other species which catch not only insects, but also rodents as large as rats,” Stewart McPherson of Red Fern Natural History Productions told the BBC.
The species was first noted by a group of missionaries in 2000. Seven years later experts went in search of the species.
“At around 1600 metres above sea level, we suddenly saw one great pitcher plant, then a second, then many more,” Stewart McPherson told the BBC. “It was immediately apparent that the plant we had found was not a known species.”
The expedition also found another pitcher plant species, Nepenthes deaniana, that hadn’t been recorded in the wild for a century.
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