Rat-Eating Plant

[Chowhound]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6041241/Rat-eating-plant-discovered-in-Philippines.html

Pretty cool, and who they named it after is even cooler.

[kerzain]

Now there's one plant I will not be having a sexual relationship with.

I'm sure Sir David Attenborough is proud to have a discovery like this named after him, but if it were me I'd rather have a redwood or something in my name.

[Major Icehole]

It's funny that I can hear Sir. David's voice in those quotes.

So cool.

[krayzkrok]

Now there's one plant I will not be having a sexual relationship with.

There are plants you would have a sexual relationship with?

[robsam]

Don't you judge him!

[Jon Rowe]

Nothing wrong with a flora-fetish!

[Jakub]

I think that's amazing.

Rats swim, so they're not likely to be drowned, and between the claws and teeth they have they're capable of chewing up almost any naturally occurring substance on the planet. To think a plant can kill them is bewildering.


OK, n/m, they don't actually catch rats. They're just large enough to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepenthes_attenboroughii

[krayzkrok]

I think there's more going on here than the press simply running with a misquote about it eating rats, though. There's a photo on that Telegraph article taken by one of the paper's authors showing a "drowned" (but clearly alive) rat poking its head out of a pitcher plant, and that same author quoted as saying they "catch not only insects, but also rodents". Yet there's a forum link in the Wikipedia article where the main author says it's a load of nonsense. One possible scenario is that the photographer set up an interesting picture to support a hypothesis and it went from there. It wouldn't be the first time.

[Raife]

I think there's more going on here than the press simply running with a misquote about it eating rats, though. There's a photo on that Telegraph article taken by one of the paper's authors showing a "drowned" (but clearly alive) rat poking its head out of a pitcher plant, and that same author quoted as saying they "catch not only insects, but also rodents". Yet there's a forum link in the Wikipedia article where the main author says it's a load of nonsense. One possible scenario is that the photographer set up an interesting picture to support a hypothesis and it went from there. It wouldn't be the first time.

Pfft, like you're some kind of wildlife expert or something. Try again, krok!

[robsam]

He is an expert on crocodiles, but as we all know from watching Animal Planet, it is easy to subdue a large reptile by throwing your body on it from behind and hanging on.

I'd like to see him take on this plant barehanded. Or a rat for that matter.

This thread needs a botanist. And a psychiatrist.

[krayzkrok]

You really don't want to test my rat-wrangling skills, robsam. And my ability to subdue vegetation is legendary amongst the captive green iguanas of the world. Never forget, plants can be crocodiles too.

[EvilIdler]

Darwin, where men are men and rats are nervous?

[Brad Grenz]

Nothing wrong with a flora-fetish!

He's an arborphiliac.

[Skipper]

He's an arborphiliac.

They prefer the term Floweries, or, um, at least that's what I've heard.

[FoRmaT]

You really don't want to test my rat-wrangling skills, robsam. And my ability to subdue vegetation is legendary amongst the captive green iguanas of the world. Never forget, plants can be crocodiles too.

You must stick your thumb in its butthole, remember!

[Griddle]

Hot hot stamen and pistil action.

[salwon]

We're boned.

[Griddle]

So, there's this game I heard of...
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=54341