Attenborough's pitcher plant

A carnivore named after David Attenborough

Attenborough's pitcher plant is a spectacular carnivorous plant, among the largest of its genus. It is named after the celebrated British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, a keen enthusiast of these plants. It is characterised by broad bell-shaped pitchers — the urn-like traps typical of the Nepenthes — that can exceed 30 centimetres in height, topped by a narrow, upright lid. The stem can climb to around a metre and a half.

Habitat and distribution

It is a strictly endemic species: it grows only on the slopes and summit of Mount Victoria, an ultramafic mountain on the island of Palawan in the Philippines, between 1,450 and 1,726 metres altitude. It thus lives in a cool montane climate, on poor, metal-rich soils, where catching insects makes up for the scarcity of nutrients.

Giant traps

Its pitchers are so large that they can trap, besides a multitude of insects, even small vertebrates such as frogs and rodents that fall in and are slowly digested by the plant's fluids. It is a striking example of how a plant can 'hunt' surprisingly large prey.

Curiosities

The species was located during an expedition in 2007, after reports of unusually large plants on the mountaintop, and was scientifically described in 2009. Its relatively recent discovery is a reminder of how many species remain to be found in tropical mountains.

Conservation

The IUCN classifies the species as Critically Endangered, because of its tiny range and illegal collection for collectors. Cultivation requires highland conditions hard to reproduce; it is a rare plant, suited only to very experienced growers.