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Stewart McPherson
Details of the find were recently published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society (abstract here).
Missionaries initially stumbled upon the giant plant in 2000 but botanists weren't able to pinpoint it until 2007. Like all pitcher plants, it captures insects and animals in its tube-like leaves and smothers them to gain nutrients.
Intrigued? One of the botanists who discovered the new species, Stewart McPherson, has written the definitive book on pitcher plants that contains over 750 remarkable gallery.
Read more from the BBC.
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Carnivorous Plants
Carnivorous plants come from a large family. Some have sticky surfaces that grab the legs of insects and won't let go, some snap shut and still others lure prey to be smothered by their leaves.
If hearing "carnivorous plants" conjures up images of the man-eater Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors (the London stage production is seen here), check out these real species, in all their creepy, sticky detail.
The newly-discovered giant pitcher plant (Nepenthes attenboroughii).
The childhood favorite Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). Even Charles Darwin was fascinated by the sinister-looking plant that snaps shut on insects in the blink of an eye.
A Western bladderwort plant (Utricularia australis), which traps victims in its underwater sacs.
The sacs, called bladders or utricles, areseen on a greater bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris).
The common sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) catches prey with sticky resin.
Close-up of a sundew plant. It's pretty but deadly for insects.
Sticky leaves help the many species of butterwort plants (this one's scientific name is Pinguicula-Hybride), catch fruit flies.
A red butterwort (Pinguicula planifolia) is a different color, but just as sticky.
It's easy to see where the many varieties of pitcher plants got their name. Small insects and animals fall into the tube-like structure.
