In a scene out of Little Shop of Horrors (pick your favorite version), a team of British botanists lead by Stewart McPherson and Alastair Robinson have discovered a rare new plant on the slopes of Mount Victoria in the Philippines.  That plant, christened Nepenthes attenboroughii after Sir David Attenborough, is a new species of carnivorous plant large enough to feast on local rodents!

Personally, I would’ve called it Audrey III, even though it’s not quite big enough to be a man-eater (yet).  Still, it’s amazing just how little we know about the wild world around us, and how much we discover daily about plants and animals.  Even after the plant was reported in 2000 by wandering missionaries, it wasn’t discovered by scientists until 2009.  That’s nine years of searching by professional scientists who knew what they were looking for; who knows how long the plant would’ve remained undiscovered if it wasn’t for dumb luck?

To think that a meat-eating plant of this size could’ve remained undiscovered until now is pretty awesome and pretty frightening.  I mean, who knows what’s out there?  For all we really know, there could be a mermaid in Israel!

Tags: nature, plants, unusual plants, carnivorous plant, rat-eating plant, Nepenthes attenboroughii, Stewart McPherson, Alastair Robinson, Mount Victoria, Philippines, undiscovered plants

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