Keywords: biology, plants, botany, carnivorous, Mount
Alexandria, Nepenthes attenboroughii, nitrogen, phosphorous,
adenosine triphosphate, pitcher plants  A menu of rats may be
expected with coyotes and owls—but plants? As improbable as it
sounds, there are plants that can digest rats and other small
vertebrates. Recently, news agencies and websites were deluged
with headlines that a new species of “rat-eating” plant was
discovered by a botanical team led by Stewart McPherson.1
Apparently the researchers got wind of a story that took place
in 2000.  As the tale goes, two Christian missionaries to the
Philippines got lost in central Palawan while attempting to
ascend Mount Alexandria.2 They were rescued 13 days later and
recounted seeing large carnivorous pitcher plants on the slope
of the mountain. Their botanical descriptions were unique enough
to cause McPherson and team to mount a two-month expedition to
the area in 2007. Upon hiking through dense forests and climbing
up Mount Alexandria, they spotted the