Social medium haters , take promissory note : Facebook can be used for so much more thanstalking your exes . Like , for exemplar , making a scientific discovery .
Researchers lately key anew species of carnivorous plantusing the social culture medium platform . “ It is the first works that was discovered on Facebook,”claimsAndreas Fleischmann , a carnivorous works expert with the Botanical State Collection of Munich and co - author of the paper announcing the uncovering , which appeared in the journalPhytotaxa[PDF ] .
A photo of the newly namedDrosera magnifica(“magnificent sundew plant ” ) was upload to Facebook by Reginaldo Vasconcelos , an amateurish investigator who photographed the plant on a mountaintop in Minas Gerais , Brazil in 2013 . The immense flora , which can grow to be nearly 5 feet long , is “ regarded as the largest New World sundew and one of the three largestDroseraspecies , ” accord to the newspaper publisher . Its nearly 10 - column inch , thin , sticky leave sand trap insects as full-grown as dragonfly . The dirt ball give the plants , which often mature in nutrient - deficient soil , an surplus boost of nutrients .
The scientist weresurprised the plant had n’t already been break , since the mountain on which it farm is easy approachable . So far , though , the sundew has only been line up on that mountain — and the plant is already think critically menace . The forest surrounding the mess has been cleared to make room for cattle ranches and eucalyptus plantations . “ We trust that the find of such an extraordinary new flora mintage will bring aid to the conservation of this fragile ecosystem , ” Paulo Gonella , from the Systematic Botany Labs of the University of São Paulo , Brazil , said , noting that the field is so poorly botanized that it might have other plant species that are fresh to science .
[ h / tInverse ]
