Rat-eating Plant Discovered in Australia

Megaport writes "Finally, the news that every slashdot-meme poster have been waiting for. A rat-eating vine called "Tenax" has been discovered in the rainforests of the Cape York region in Queensland, Australia"

Too Bad.

I figured it'd be more useful in the fire swamps.

Re:Too Bad.

I figured it'd be more useful in the fire swamps.

Unlikely. Rat-eating vines of Unusual Size? I don't think they exis

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Wouldn't that be RUS-eating vines? I mean, they are vines that eat rodents of unusual size - not vines of unusual size that eat rats.

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But wouldn't a vine that could eat an RUS be of unusual size itself? I would think it would have to scale up to meet the larger size requirements.

Fire plating would also help.

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I figured it'd be more useful in the fire swamps.

Unlikely. Rat-eating vines of Unusual Size? I don't think they exis

The very idea is inconceivable.

Re:Too Bad.

Let's buy as many of them as we can, and plant them in Washington DC.

-jcr

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No, even vines have their standards.

no video?

or at least a full article :( does anyone have more information on these?

Pic and more info

picture here [cryptomundo.com], and there is even a Wikipedia entry [wikipedia.org].

Co-author "Rod Kruger" sells carnivorous plants

I haven't been able to find online the paper

"Clarke, C.M & R. Kruger 2006. Nepenthes tenax C.Clarke and R.Kruger (Nepenthaceae), a new species from Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Austrobaileya 7(2): 319-324.

nor can I find a personal page for Charles Clark [wikipedia.org] who is now supposed to be at the Hong_Kong_University_of_Science_and_Technology [wikipedia.org].

However the co-author "R.Kruger" is Rod Kruger [google.com] who runs Captive Exotics [captiveexotics.info],

We are an Australian carnivorous plant nursery specialising in Nepenthes, or tropical pitcher plants.

The first author Charles Clark seems to have an interest in this business [auscps.com]

Rod kruger is selling them :) atm he is away but charles clarke is looking after his nursery for now.

Pic and more and more and more popups

There are a lot of popup ads that appear when you go to that link.

dude, Mozilla 1.7.13 is so like 2006

Mozilla 1.7.13 says

Release Date:, 2006-04-2

So you haven't updated your browser even though when you run it eventually there pops up a window that says you really need to update it NOW and gives you a button to click on to do it? Personally I don't know an

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I'm guessing Tenax ate his mouse, making it difficult to click on the "Update Now" button

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The locations of rare plants are often not disclosed here - I believe the location of the Wollemi Pine was also ( maybe still ) kept secret to stop people showing up and looting them.

Die, Turtles!

I, for one, welcome our Splinter eating overloads!

revolution

the citizens of new york can now take back their subways from their vermin overlords.

Australian Geographic

Australian Geographic magazine has an article on these plants. Apparently they are in an area which also has lots of saltwater crocodiles, so not even humans can claim to be at the top of the food chain there! http://editorial.australiangeographic.com.au/ [australian...hic.com.au] is the front page but the article does not appear to be on-line.

Cool

Now, how can I get my Ex to be around it?

Mass Production for Export

New York desperately needs them, especially that KFC-Taco Bell from a year ago (http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=113755 [ksdk.com]). Then again, maybe Washington needs them more for the big ones they have there.

The horror

dear lord, not Washington. They would go all kudzu crazy.
Think Day Of The Triffids vs. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

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New York desperately needs them, especially that KFC-Taco Bell from a year ago

My mom sent me an article from the NYT print edition (couldn't find a link) about how rats are nesting
in the engine compartment of cars (mmmm warm) and eating the insulation from

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Rats....

Why did it have to be rats?

Re:Mass Production for Export

Then again, maybe Washington needs them more for the big ones they have there.

Tenax for President in '08! He'll clean up Washington!

Peculiar Name

Hmm, is there any coincidence that the name of new the species resembles "Texan"?

Tarzan

Suddely those old Tarzan movies don't seem so far-fetched anymore.

send in the lawyers!

wait, I didnt think plants would eat lawyers...heh, guess everything has its place on the food chain, huh?

Small Fry...

Who cares about a wee little rodent eating plant when they have trees attacking cows in India! [newindpress.com]

Doesn't surprise me

Given that pretty much absolutely everything else in Australia is poisonous or capable of eating a full grown human being it doesn't surprise me that plants thewould start making things worse for other creatures as well.

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Given that pretty much absolutely everything else in Australia is poisonous or capable of eating a full grown human being...

That's not entirely true. There's one snake (Pailsus pailsei) here that isn't poisonous. Mind you, it survives by imitating a Bro

Kinda small for a pitcher plant

Other links that discuss this plant mention pitchers that are 15cm. A 6 in pitcher is going to have a hard time holding onto a rat. Pitchers capture their prey by drowning. Fine, downward pointing hairs prevent creatures from crawling back out of a pitcher once they have entered. Again I have a hard time believing that this plant can regularly restrain small mammals. I don't doubt that an occasional small mammal may get trapped but I bet most escape. And a 6 inch pitcher is not all that big. The yellow pitcher plant of North America (genus Sarracenia (no close relation to Nepenthes))can have pitchers that exceed a 12 inches in length (they are more narrow however). Also, many Nepenthes species are vine so that mention in the article is likely from a journalist trying to increase his/her word count.

Re:Kinda small for a pitcher plant

And a 6 inch pitcher is not all that big.

You know... they've got pills for that.

How long does it take to digest? Does it stink?

How long does it take to digest? Does it stink? How does a plant that small keep small rodents from escaping? I would think it would be hard to drown them, unless there liquid is tasty and sedative? More info please!

If you can use a banana to prove god exists...

why dont you ever hear of these things.... which are WAY more seemingly complicated and amazing and "improbable", as the proof that god exists?

oh yeah, that would be horrific.

Re:If you can use a banana to prove god exists...

why dont you ever hear of these things.... which are WAY more seemingly complicated and amazing and "improbable", as the proof that god exists?

oh yeah, that would be horrific.

I would love to see a Satainst make the religious argument for intelligent design. Parasites! Holy crap, there's some material. "Ok, here's the penis fish. You piss in the Amazon, this little sucker will follow the ammonia right up to your pee hole and dig in. It has barbs. And if that doesn't get you, let's talk about fresh water amoeba that will get in your brain and drive you mad! And let's not forget venereal diseases, genetic diseases, mosquito-born diseases. All of this created by God! He's got a thousand species of carnivorous mold, each species perfectly adapted to attacking a given species of ant! All of this playing out below typical human notice, below human care! How about the mud-dauber wasp, kidnapping poor defenseless caterpillars to paralyze them and leave them as a live meal for their eggs, to hatch and feast upon them? Yum yum! That is one sick motherfucker right there, folks. Now let me tell you about my guy..."

Ode to Carnivorous Plants

Ode to Carnivorous Plants

Your nutrients are derived
From those so kin to me
Yesterday, Mus musculus frolicked by you
Today, the sweet smell of you absorbing his tiny brain

Your large pitcher, an inviting opening
But oh, the Musmanity!
For it is full of your digestive fluids
But wait, rain approaches

Your operculum must spring forth, like an umbrella
But all is fell, your pseudo-stomach is full
Enjoy the rain, my sweet
For one can only hope, you avoid your own pitfall.

Sensationalism

Plants in the genus Nepenthes have been known to catch the odd large-animal from time to time. Notably, Nepenthes raja which have been observed to grow individual pitchers that are capable of containing volumes of fluid up to ~3.5 litres. You can find pictures strewn across the internet of a Nepenthes or other carnivorous plant having caught a rat, a bird, a bat, a toad, a shrew, but these are not the normal constituents of carnivorous plant diets. Generally larger fauna caught by carnivorous plants are suspected of simply looking for a drink and being sick or near death anyway. Often times, due to the inability of the plant to digest these creatures the pitcher will often suffer rather than benefit the plant as a whole.

Some awesome, yet very unusual examples:

A bat was caught by a Nepenthes and discovered during the North Eastern Carnivorous Plant Society meeting in 2007. Note that the bat (though it stunk to high-hell) is largely in tact, a testament to the fact that these plants aren't made for eating larger creatures. http://terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110338 [terraforums.com]

A treefrog caught by a venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) caught and successfully digested- all but the skeleton, of course! http://terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93070&highlight=frog [terraforums.com] While a new species of carnivorous plant is always welcome, until enzymes produced by the pitcher, or a symbiotic relationship between bacteria and plant is found which specifically targets rats or other mammals, I call BS to the claim of it being a rat-eater.

Carnivorous plants are fun but this is nothing new

Large Nepenthes have been known for many, many years. Do a search on Google images for "Nepenthes mouse" and you'll find examples of where people have had rats and mice fall victim to nepenthes in people's greenhouses so there's little reason it wont happen in the wild, although I suppose you could argue animals should be more wise to it in their natural environments.

There was a story going around various carnivorous plant communities and quite honestly I can't verify it's truth but needless to say it seems plausible. There was apparently a zoo that had some large nepenthes in the monkey enclosure (They're often just called monkey cups because monkeys have been known to drink from them in the wild) and they had to be removed because baby monkeys kept falling into the pitchers and required rescuing before they began to get digested which in turn apparently made many of the children at the zoo observing the monkeys cry.

You can keep nepenthes at home, some species are easy to keep as they don't need a massive amount of humidity and don't need especially warm temperatures but others can be kept in a greenhouse. Personally I keep one in the bathroom as use of the shower provides all the humidity it needs in that room and it does a decent job of dealing with spiders and mossies that make their way in there although be warned, the digestive process isn't particularly fast or terribly exciting, we're talking weeks or months. They do look impressive though, particularly the species with red pitchers or the combined reddish/yellow/green pitchers.

It's interesting keeping carnivorous plants and I started it because I got fed up of insects in my computer room in the summer. I didn't want an insecticutor as the room gets too hot as is and I don't want to use even more electricity so I figured the natural route may be an interesting option, it certainly is. Sundew (drosera), Venus flytraps (dionaea muscipula), Pitcher plants (nepenthes and saracennia) and butterworts (pinguicula) are the best bet.

If you are interested in getting started with carnivorous plants, I don't recommend trying from seed at first and you really need rainwater or distilled water (tap water doesn't cut it) but there are decent suppliers everywhere (www.littleshopofhorrors.co.uk if you're in the UK is decent). The one thing I will say though is please, if you are going to maintain your own creature killing plants use peat from sustainable sources or alternatives! There's no reason you can't keep this type of plant at home though if you can get hold of one from a legitimate source (i.e. not looted from the wild) which isn't too hard.

What I really want is a rat catching venus flytrap or sundew, now THAT would be something ;)

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All Our Base Are Belong to Them?

Re:Meme?

I just have one question for the moderators...

Because Slashdot memes were mentioned in the story, are Slashdot memes exactly off-topic?

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In Soviet Russia moderators question YOU!

I for one welcome our new rat-eating-vine-overlords and would like to offer little Sam who snitched on me in the third grade as the first rat/human sacrifice.

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No.. in Soviet Russia, post questions YOU!

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I just have one question for the moderators...

Because Slashdot memes were mentioned in the story, are Slashdot memes exactly off-topic?

Rats. Why did someone plant those there? Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Re:Large pitcher plant

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/nepenthes-tenax/ [cryptomundo.com] and http://www.conservationreport.com/2008/01/new-species-rat-eating-plant-discovered.html [conservationreport.com] have some pictures, not much more information unfortunately.

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You must be new here. You should have used "Imagine a Beowulf cluster out of those!" in this case.

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Does it run linux [chainsawlinux.com]? Because if it doesn't, we probably need to find someone who does.

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A variation on the Dead Badger Linux [strangehorizons.com] instructions would probably work for getting Linux running on a carnivorous plant. The real question is... does this count as green computing?

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Would somebody think of the rats?!!

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Wrong meme. Here in America, rats eat plants, but in Soviet Australia, plants eat rats!

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That's pretty neat, you managed to fit two memes in one line bashing memes.

You did intend to do that... no? Well, at least it managed to be self descriptive.

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So he should get a job reporting for the Fox News Channel?