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Page last updated at 10:04 GMT, Tuesday, 18 August 2009 11:04 UK

Attenborough's flesh-eating plant

Giant carnivorous plant
Giant carnivorous plant Nepenthes Attenboroughii

Botanists have uncovered a carnivorous plant in the Philippines that is large enough to digest a whole rat.

Stewart McPherson, one of the botanists who trekked deep into the Philippine forest to make the discovery, described the "really interesting plant" on the Today programme.

The enormous pitcher-plant lives at the top of a remote mountain where the only previous visitors had been a group of missionaries who had to be rescued, he said.

The group decided to name the newly discovered plant after naturalist Sir David Attenborough, but only after asking his permission first.

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