吃蝾螈的植物

　　The carnivorous northern pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea) traps unwary insects in its goblet-shaped leaves and digests the bugs for their nutrients. But earlier this year, scientists were shocked to find pitcher plants chowing down on salamanders as well. A team of researchers sampled several hundred pitcher plants in Ontario's Algonquin Provincial Park and found that about 20% of the plants contained at least one juvenile salamander, while many plants captured several of the amphibians at once. The salamanders drowned, starved or were cooked to death in the acidic pitcher fluid and, once dead, decomposed in about 10 days. The ravenous plants may gobble up as much as 5% of the bog's juvenile salamander population each year, the team estimated.

　　瓶子草这种北方的肉食性捕虫草能用它的杯状叶片捕捉到不够小心的昆虫，并消化这些昆虫以吸取它们的营养。但今年早些时候，科学家们惊讶地发现瓶子草也能吞食蝾螈。一组研究人员对加拿大安大略省省立阿尔贡金公园内的数百株瓶子草进行了采样，结果发现有大约20%的瓶子草里捕获了至少一只幼年蝾螈，而且有不少瓶子草同时捕获了好几只。蝾螈在瓶子草的酸性液中被淹死、饿死或被“煮”死，而一旦死亡，它们的身体会在大约10天内分解。研究团队估计，这种贪婪的植物每年可能会吞食该沼泽内5%的幼年蝾螈。

　　carnivorous [kɑːˈnɪvərəs]：adj.食肉的;肉食性的