A new species of giant carnivorous plant has been discovered in the highlands of the central Philippines.
The pitcher plant is among the largest of all pitchers and is so big that it can catch rats as well as insects in its leafy trap.During the same expedition, botanists also came across strange pink ferns and blue mushrooms they could not identify.
The botanists have named the pitcher plant after British natural history broadcaster David Attenborough.
They published details of the discovery in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society earlier this year.
Word that this new species of pitcher plant existed initially came from two Christian missionaries who in 2000 attempted to scale Mount Victoria, a rarely visited peak in central Palawan in the Philippines.
With little preparation, the missionaries attempted to climb the mountain but became lost for 13 days before being rescued from the slopes.
On their return, they described seeing a large carnivorous pitcher plant.
That pricked the interest of natural history explorer Stewart McPherson of Red Fern Natural History Productions based in Poole, Dorset, UK and independent botanist Alastair Robinson, formerly of the University of Cambridge, UK and Volker Heinrich, of Bukidnon Province, the Philippines.
All three are pitcher plant experts, having travelled to remote locations in the search for new species.
So in 2007, they set off on a two-month expedition to the Philippines, which included an attempt at scaling Mount Victoria to find this exotic new plant.
Accompanied by three guides, the team hiked through lowland forest, finding large stands of a pitcher plant known to science called Nepenthes philippinensis , as well as strange pink ferns and blue mushrooms which they could not identify.
As they closed in on the summit, the forest thinned until eventually they were walking among scrub and large boulders
"At around 1,600 metres above sea level, we suddenly saw one great pitcher plant, then a second, then many more," McPherson recounts.
"It was immediately apparent that the plant we had found was not a known species."
Pitcher plants are carnivorous. Carnivorous plants come in many forms, and are known to have independently evolved at least six separate times. While some have sticky surfaces that act like flypaper, others like the Venus fly trap are snap traps, closing their leaves around their prey.
Pitchers create tube-like leaf structures into which insects and other small animals tumble and become trapped.
The team has placed type specimens of the new species in the herbarium of the Palawan State University, and have named the plant Nepenthes attenboroughii after broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough.
"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," says McPherson.
The pitcher plant does not appear to grow in large numbers, but McPherson hopes the remote, inaccessible mountain-top location, which has only been climbed a handful of times, will help prevent poachers from reaching it.
During the expedition, the team also encountered another pitcher, Nepenthes deaniana , which had not been seen in the wild for 100 years. The only known existing specimens of the species were lost in a herbarium fire in 1945.
On the way down the mountain, the team also came across a striking new species of sundew, a type of sticky trap plant, which they are in the process of formally describing.
Thought to be a member of the genus Drosera , the sundew produces striking large, semi-erect leaves which form a globe of blood red foliage.
Endangered diversity gives lessons
Massie Santos Ballon, Philippine Daily Inquirer 15 Aug 09;
Filed Under: Environmental Issues, Natural Resources (general)
DESPITE their name, I think of pitcher plants as carnivorous, flip-top jugs without handles. And I think they’re fascinating because these plants lure insects into examining the inside from the inside and then trap and eat them.
Pitcher plants belong to several different genera, including Nepenthes, and some 16 different Nepenthes pitcher plant species one already named for this country are native to the Philippines.
Reinforcing the nation’s title as the region with the third-largest collection of Nepenthes diversity, British and Filipino researchers have recently identified still another pitcher plant species on a mountaintop in Palawan.
In the February issue of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, researchers from England’s University of Cambridge, Germany’s LMU Munich and the Philippines’ Palawan State University reported finding a new species of pitcher plant within a 10-square-kilometer region of Mount Victoria.
This new species has larger pitchers compared to other pitcher plants found in the area, and the pitchers aren’t as rounded, being shaped more like trumpets.
Significance
When it came to naming the new species, it seemed fitting that the name should have significance to both nations represented.
“We have chosen to name this species after the [British] broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, whose astounding television documentaries have made the world’s natural history accessible and understandable to millions,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
“As a keen enthusiast of the genus and a patron of Philippine conservation efforts, it is fitting that this spectacular new species be dedicated to him on the occasion of his 80th birthday.”
While N. attenboroughii was found on Mount Victoria, researchers have also found it in a few areas throughout Palawan.
Based on the number of plants found though, this pitcher plant species is already considered critically endangered in accordance with the World Conservation Union Red List Criteria.
If you’re inclined to be cynical, then you might think that announcing the existence of a newly discovered and threatened species might hasten its extinction as collectors have them removed from the wild.
As a counterweight, consider that in early August, several dozen critically endangered Philippine crocodiles that had been raised in captivity were released into the wilds of the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park located near the Central Luzon provinces of Aurora and Isabela.
Protected habitat
Since the park is the largest protected habitat in the country and is already home to several other rare and endangered species, among them the Philippine eagle, the Philippine eagle-owl, several turtle species and the dugong, moving the crocodiles here suggests that endangered species aren’t quite ready to disappear yet.
If you’re an optimist, then the discovery of a new plant species confirms a recent report from the World Wildlife Fund’s Nepal office that says more than 350 new species have been discovered in the Eastern Himalayas in the past decade.
Among these discoveries are a bright green frog that “glides” in the air using its large webbed feet, a tiny deer considered the oldest and smallest deer species, and the first scorpion discovered in Nepal.
I said at the beginning that I think the pitcher plants are cool, but I don’t think they feel the same way. Some years ago I had a nonendangered, Nepenthes-species pitcher plant that I planned to use as a natural pest control.
I thought it would feast on the flies and mosquitoes that liked dining on me, but I think it starved to death instead.
Lesson learned: either place the plant where the insects abound, or else feed the plant much smaller pieces of raw meat.