New plant discovered!!

Amazing News! I have a friend named Laura works with one of the botany labs at the U.of U. Biology Dept. She is wrapping up her masters and is working toward her PhD in the field. Recently, a team was organized to assess the current state of affairs of the ecology of the upper Amazon rain forest in Venezuela. She had the chance to go. The team returned about 6 months ago and they brought back new unkown specimens!! A few were fresh water' aquatic species never seen before! The head scientist has described one of them. It seems to look like a sort of fresh water anemone that feeds on copopods, small fish and other oraganisms. She finally let me into the lab to see what was going on since she knows how much I like aquascaping. The other species of unknowns are really wierd. One plant that they brought back is the first specimen of its kind ever to make it into a lab for study. The local village that they established base camp out of had stories of a plant that could turn off the reproductive system of human females like turning off a light switch! They found one and brought it back for further study! It looks like a tall rush grass that lives in wetlands/swamps. There are stories of another plant that can turn the reproductive system back on but it has yet to be found due to deforestation and slash and burn abuse of the ecosystem. The team has plans to keep looking next year.

But back to the other amazing plant! They are naming it "Hydroatroxi tentaculifolia carnivorosa" species. I'm not sure of the genus or family yet. I really should not be revealing any of this since it has yet to be published. I will be visiting the lab soon and will try to get pictures of it as soon as I can- cell phone don't fail me now.
From what Laura said it seems to be relatively easy to keep in aquariums(the ones at the bio-lab) but it might have to be a 'species only tank' kind of set up due to its odd feeding habits. I have to admit when I saw it I was shocked! It definitely has an anemone look to it and its 'tentacles' seem to be triggered by movement of some hapless water flea getting caught by some sort of viscous slime on the 'tentacles'. The cocopod stuck to the leaf/tentacle is curled up like a sundew and after the thing has been broken down, the nutrients are absorbed. it seems to emit a toxin into the water for larger prey that get stuck in its slime ( I guess that is the "hydroatroxi part...it means bad-horrible water). They inhale the toxin into their gills, stop moving, and are wrapped up by more of the sticky slime coated leaves. It is green and must augment its nutrient intake with photosynthisis. It is the length of a persons hand or smaller. Its central trunk/stock is about the girth of a paper towel role. The tentacle/petal/leaves are relatively short and reddish in color. That is about all that I know so far. I will try to keep this thread posted as soon as possible with further updates and, God willing, a picture taken on the sly.

hey randy,

lucky you. it must be simply amazing to see one of those 'slimy anemone'.
i felt like a ghostbuster will reading . keep us update randy! of course pictures would be great.
and thanks for sharing this news with us.

hi randy, good to know this, is it kind of leafy lichen or plant?

that is sik man! can't wait to see some pics

Without pictures, it must be all lies.

wow Randy, that is soo stinkin cool i'd like to see it as well (even if only in photographs)

I wonder how it would affect the average "aquascape" as it does release a toxin. lookin forward to those pic.s man.

I am going to Laura's lab on friday. I am bringing my cell phone and am determined to get a pic or two at that time! I will be downloading the pics as fast as possible.

Also, after disecting one of their specimens it has been determined to be a plant. The lead scientist thinks that it probably sends up a single flower stock for pollination, but 'Hydroatroxi tentaculifolia...' seems to spread by the growth of rhizomes from what they can tell. They gathered 20 some odd specimens from a large pond that was carpeted with them on one edge. They have duplicated GH, Ph, and have done mineral annalysis of the water to help with the ones living on their tanks. Laura told me that they will be publishing soon with thier findings and photos. It might even make the news!

c'mon pics!

Without pics, it's all lies:-p

I GOT THEM!! I got to the lab with Laura after hours with a camera instead of my cellphone in my backpack. She went to the bathroom and BAM!! I got them! Fellow aquarists, here are pics of

'Hydroatroxi tentaculifolia carnivorosa(species) crudusidioseae(genus) fatuadensa(order) '! The rest I couldn't remember.

(sorry for the bad quality of the pics but please remember that I had to take them on the sly.)

Black water and acidic Ph seems to be a must for this amazing plant. I wish that I could have taken pics of the larger tanks with dozens of specimens but I was being escorted around...darn.. I could only get pics of the smallest of the tanks. I guess that these were the left over plants that wouldn't fit in the other tanks. There were a few espie raspora and snails thrown in to keep it fed. I am not sure of the frequency of its feedings.

Certainly the oddest Aquatic plants to date.

Thanks!!

na i don't beleave it. looks like some type of man made object with moss on it lol

Look at the reflection in the tank - that's not a laboratory. Someone's having fun with you guys. Certainly not real at all. Complete hoax.

Agree completely - someone had fun with ceramics and moss

I know that it is hard to believe but I am planning on getting back to the lab to get pics of the bigger tanks! I try to pretend that i have a call on my cellphone and take a few while 'recieving the call'.

Besides, people didn't believe the reports of Yellowstone Nat'l Park when it was first blundered into by John Colter- they nicknamed his 'discovery' "Colter's Hell". The same situation came with the discovery of the 'Ape man of deepest Africa' a.k.a. the Gorilla species. And of course there is the Giant Squid that has had pictures recently taken of it for evidence in documentaries on the subject. new discoveries are being made all of the time. Our world is not fully understood. These Scientists have simply happened upon a new plant species. I wonder if the same disbelief happened with Utricularia Gramminifolia (U.G.)? It is a plant that we all know of that is carnivorous as well.

Science will win out... fair and square.