Newly Discovered Carnivorous Jungle Plant Gobbles Rats Whole
Deep in the jungle primeval, Nepenthes attenboroughii awaits its furry prey. But N. attenboroughii isn’t a stealthy cat or poisonous lizard. It’s a plant, and it eats rats.
So says a Popular Science article by Stuart Fox.
The study formally announcing the discovery (of the plant, though not of its prey) is:
“A spectacular new species of Nepenthes L. (Nepenthaceae) pitcher plant from central Palawan, Philippines,” Alastair S. Robinson, et al., Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 159, 195–202.
(Thanks to investigator Donna McMahon for bringing this to our attention.)
UPDATE (May 23, 2011): In the original version of this we attributed authorship to the wrong person. Stuart Fox wrote the Popular Science article. Sorry about the error, Stuart!