Scientists Identify New Carnivorous Plant that Traps Prey Underground

This photo taken on Oct.28 shows pulling weeds from a bed of plants at a park in Baguio City, north of Manila. (AFP)
This photo taken on Oct.28 shows pulling weeds from a bed of plants at a park in Baguio City, north of Manila. (AFP)
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Scientists Identify New Carnivorous Plant that Traps Prey Underground

This photo taken on Oct.28 shows pulling weeds from a bed of plants at a park in Baguio City, north of Manila. (AFP)
This photo taken on Oct.28 shows pulling weeds from a bed of plants at a park in Baguio City, north of Manila. (AFP)

During a several-day trip with Indonesian colleagues to the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo, botanist Martin Dančák of Czech’s Palacký University noted plants which were undoubtedly Nepenthes but produced no pitchers.

After a careful search, they found a couple of aerial pitchers, which led them to discover a strategy so far unknown from any other species of carnivorous plant: catching the prey in the soil.

The Nepenthes plant is widely spotted in southern China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, India, and Siri Lanka.

It has modified leaves known as pitfall traps or pitchers, whose inner walls are covered with a waxy substance and hairs or folds that lock the prey insects in. The pitchers also contain glands that secrete a liquid that fills a part of it.

One of its sides produces a nectar that attracts insects and traps them after they fall in. The prey is then consumed using digestive enzymes, and the plant uses the resulting nutrients to grow.

While most of these plants’ pitchers are found above the ground, Dančák and his colleagues discovered that this species places its up-to-11-cm-long pitchers underground, where they are formed in cavities or directly in the soil and trap animals living underground, usually ants, mites and beetles.

The findings were announced in the journal PhytoKeys on June 29.

The newly discovered species grows on relatively dry ridge tops at an elevation of 1,100-1,300 m. According to its discoverers, this might be why it evolved to move its traps underground.

"We hypothesize that underground cavities have more stable environmental conditions, including humidity, and there is presumably also more potential prey during dry periods," adds Michal Golos of the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, who also worked on this curious plant.



Scientists in Japan Develop Plastic that Dissolves in Seawater within Hours 

A researcher shows a sample of ocean-degradable plastic at the Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) of Japanese research institution Riken in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, Japan May 27, 2025. (Reuters) 
A researcher shows a sample of ocean-degradable plastic at the Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) of Japanese research institution Riken in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, Japan May 27, 2025. (Reuters) 
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Scientists in Japan Develop Plastic that Dissolves in Seawater within Hours 

A researcher shows a sample of ocean-degradable plastic at the Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) of Japanese research institution Riken in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, Japan May 27, 2025. (Reuters) 
A researcher shows a sample of ocean-degradable plastic at the Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) of Japanese research institution Riken in Wako, Saitama Prefecture, Japan May 27, 2025. (Reuters) 

Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours, offering up a potential solution for a modern-day scourge polluting oceans and harming wildlife.

While scientists have long experimented with biodegradable plastics, researchers from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and the University of Tokyo say their new material breaks down much more quickly and leaves no residual trace.

At a lab in Wako city near Tokyo, the team demonstrated a small piece of plastic vanishing in a container of salt water after it was stirred up for about an hour.

While the team has not yet detailed any plans for commercialization, project lead Takuzo Aida said their research has attracted significant interest, including from those in the packaging sector.

Scientists worldwide are racing to develop innovative solutions to the growing plastic waste crisis, an effort championed by awareness campaigns such as World Environment Day taking place on June 5.

Plastic pollution is set to triple by 2040, the UN Environment Program has predicted, adding 23-37 million metric tons of waste into the world's oceans each year.

"Children cannot choose the planet they will live on. It is our duty as scientists to ensure that we leave them with best possible environment," Aida said.

Aida said the new material is as strong as petroleum-based plastics, but breaks down into its original components when exposed to salt. Those components can then be further processed by naturally occurring bacteria, thereby avoiding generating microplastics that can harm aquatic life and enter the food chain. As salt is also present in soil, a piece about five centimeters (two inches) in size disintegrates on land after over 200 hours, he added.

The material can be used like regular plastic when coated, and the team are focusing their current research on the best coating methods, Aida said. The plastic is non-toxic, non-flammable, and does not emit carbon dioxide, he added.