nepenthes

“Poaching threatens a third of all Nepenthes species,” says Robinson.

Last year, a team from India detected neurotoxins in the nectar produced by Nepenthes khasiana.

In 2022, a different group of researchers reported a new species, Nepenthes pudica, in Indonesia, whose pitchers grow underground.

That's just one of the findings in a new study that sequences the genome of Nepenthes gracilis, a species of carnivorous plant related to Venus flytraps, as well as sundews, beets and spinach.

"This lineage of Nepenthes didn't evolve new genes to become carnivorous -- they grabbed collections, or toolkits, of genes that were already there," Albert says.