Wildlife officials of Sullurpeta division spotted a rare insectivorous plant, Drosera Burmanni, on the tank bed at the famous Nelapattu bird sanctuary at Nelapattu in Sri Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore district recently.

The plant which is also called a carnivorous plant can catch and digest live prey (normally insects) to obtain nitrogen compounds that are lacking in its usual marshy habitat.

Wildlife divisional forest officer Ch. Pardhananda Prasad told this newspaper that it is an endangered species and they stumbled upon it during the last week of January while looking for new species at the instance of wildlife conservator of Tirupati P.V. Chalapati Rao. He said that the conservator had found the same plant in the Satyavedu area in Chittoor district a day before they saw it here. He said that it was not listed among other plants listed in wildlife records of the area in the past.

According to the DFO, the plant is one of the fastest trapping sundews and its leaves can curl around an insect in a few seconds. Drocera Burmanni is considered as a powerful rubefacient (reddening the skin) in Hindu medicine and used for producing some Ayurveda and homoeo medicines.