Big Pitcher Plant On-line


Photo: from the Wikipedia page - see below...

I read about a new species of Nepenthes - the well-known genus of pitcher plants from Asia and thereabouts - in the scientific journal Science. It was in one of those easy to read news items at the start of this journal (as I mentioned in a previous post).

The new species was described in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, and has been called Nepthenthes attenboroughii, after Sir David. Science says 'The team spied the plant after scrambling up a 6-m waterfall to reach the summit of Mount Victoria on the island of Palawan'.

Two other things are interesting. Firstly it may have some of the biggest animal-catching pitchers in the world - they measure up at 30 cm long and 15 cm wide. These pitchers would definitely hold the kind of rats we were 'feeding' our Nepenthes during the Carnivorous Plants conference display in the Tropical Centre last year.

Secondly, after being alerted to this discovery in the 20 March 2009 issue of Science I was able to find a fullsome and well referenced Wikipedia page for the species already up and ready. Just search for the name in Google and you can read all about it.

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