Nepenthes Attenboroughii

Nepenthes attenboroughii is a montane carnivorous pitcher plant with large, distinctive bell-shaped lower and upper pitchers and a narrow, upright lid, endemic to the Victoria Massif on the island of Palawan in the Philippines, where the type specimen was collected on Mount Victoria at 1,726 meters elevation. It was discovered in June 2007 by scientists Alastair Robinson, Stewart McPherson and Volker Heinrich during an expedition to catalog Philippine pitcher plants, following earlier reports of giant Nepenthes on the mountain from missionaries in 2000, and it was named after Sir David Attenborough, a longtime enthusiast of the genus. The International Institute for Species Exploration named it one of the top ten new species described in 2009, and it appeared on the IUCN 2012 list of the world 100 most threatened species; it is assessed as critically endangered because of its restricted range and the threat of plant poaching.