When two missionaries in the Philippines tasked themselves with hiking up Mt. Victoria, they got more than they bargained for. The fact that they got
lost for 13 days in their ill-prepared attempt was more than made up for (among botanists, at least) by what they
found. It seems like something out of a fairytale, complete with pink ferns and blue mushrooms. And to make sure it is a true fairytale, complete with danger lurking in the shadows: a carnivorous plant.
Their talk of finding large pitcher plants prompted a 2-month expedition by pitcher plant experts in the hinterlands of the Phillipines. They did indeed find a pitcher plant so large that it not only dines on the more mundane insects, but also on creatures as large as rats (and small, wayward children who don't obey their parents). This new species is named
Nepenthes attenboroughii after David Attenborough.
SourcePhoto source:
HortLog
He may be best known for his mellifluous tones and gentle manner, but for one group of botanists Sir David Attenborough clearly conjures up different associations. Explorers who discovered a new species of giant rodent-eating carnivorous plant have named it after the TV naturalist.
Nepenthes attenboroughii, a previously unknown variety of pitcher plant discovered on a remote mountain in the Philippines, is so big that small rodents could be trapped inside and slowly dissolved by flesh-eating enzymes
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-- Edited by Ranade on Thursday 20th of August 2009 03:27:16 PM
