Lions and tigers and... Nepenthes attenboroughii? Oh. My.
Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 6:11PM This past weekend, I went camping in California (right outside Saratoga) and all I could think of, outside of EwNature! and OMG I don’t have 3G? was- there sure are a lot of trees out here. Like seriously, lots of green stuff all around me. Several of my friends warned me about bears and other dangerous animals that could potentially eat me (deer, for example) but I came across an entry from i09.com that talked about mammal-eating plants. These plants were found in the Philippines, the land of my birth.
Right now, the plants are limited to eating insects and small rodents but it’s easy to imagine a situation in the future going down as such:
Tim: Hey Todd, have you seen Kristin, our little 4’11” friend who hates nature but joined us on our camping adventure anyway?
Todd: No I have not, Tim. I believe she walked off by herself in that direction though.
Tim: Hey, check out that freaky looking plant. Looks like a giant fleshy green plant pocket.
Todd: Yes, a 4 ‘11” sized fleshy green plant pocket.
Tim: Oh. No.
Todd: ...
So just a few quick science tidbit for you kids today:
- The plants mentioned in the i09.com article are called Nepenthes attenboroughii (after David Attenborough, oddly enough) and are found in the highlands of the central Philippines
- It’s a ‘pitcher plant’ – a carnivorous plant with a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity (like a pitcher, you think?) filled with liquid (called phytotelmata)
- An insect that enters a pitcher plant is usually lured by nectar or colors... or by its wonderful singing voice.
- Once an insect (rodent or very small person) hops into a pitcher plant, it can’t get out- some plants have grooved sides, some have, uh, slimy sides and some have bristles... or all three.
- The trapped insect is drowned in the phytotelmata at the bottom of the pitcher and its body is eventually... dissolved.
Now for the brilliant tie-in to PR...
...oh, my apologies. Is that my phone ringing? I have to go... get that. Right now.
(Have a good weekend!)
Porter Novelli Seattle, science in Science
Reader Comments (4)
This is eerily similar to that movie Little Shop of Horrors with Rick Moranis. What? You know...the one about the alien plant that can talk and eats people and gets bigger and bigger the more you feed it blood. Missed that one, huh? Oh...
Re: Noah- oh, you mean the movie I referenced in my post?
I was confused...it may have a wonderful singing voice but it most definitely does not eat insects, only humans.
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