New carnivorous plant species found on facebook

The meat-eating plant pictured above can grow 5 feet tall and catch insects as big as dragonflies. The species could be older than humanity, but as with many things, nobody knew it existed until someone posted it on Facebook. A photo of the obscure sundew was first uploaded to the social network in 2013 by Reginaldo Vasconcelos, an amateur botanist who spotted it while hiking on a mountain in southeastern Brazil. The photo was then noticed a year later by Paulo Gonella, a plant researcher at the University of São Paulo's Institute of Biosciences who realized it looked distinct from any species he'd ever seen. Gonella and Vasconcelos eventually met up and returned to the mountain, where they tracked down the mysterious plant. Along with researchers from the Botanical State Collection in Munich, Germany, they were able to confirm the species was previously unknown to science. They published their discovery — named Drosera magnifica, or "magnificent sundew" — this month in the journal Phytotaxa. Sundews represent one of the largest groups of carnivorous plants on Earth, with around 200 species discovered so far. They attract and trap insects using sticky, hair-like glands spread across the surface of their leaves, then slowly roll up their Read more: http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/new-carnivorous-plant-species-discovered-facebook#ixzz3hZSuFN6w