Marcello Catalano is an Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

 and author specializing in carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plant

Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants appear adapted to grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients, especially nitrogen, such as acidic...

s. As a result of this interest, which began in 1985, Catalano founded the Italian Carnivorous Plant Society (Associazione Italiana Piante Carnivore, A.I.P.C.) and its quarterly magazine, AIPC News (later AIPC Magazine), at the end of the 1990s.

From 2000 to 2004, he worked as a gardener intern at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, usually referred to as Kew Gardens, is 121 hectares of gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in southwest London, England. "The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew" and the brand name "Kew" are also used as umbrella terms for the institution that runs...

, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney

Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney

The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Australia, are the most central of the three major botanical gardens open to the public in Sydney....

, Orto Botanico di Pavia

Orto Botanico dell'Università di Pavia

The Orto Botanico dell'Università di Pavia , also known as the Orto Botanico di Pavia, is a botanical garden maintained by the University of Pavia. It is located at Via S. Epifanio, 14, Pavia, Italy, and open weekdays....

, and Robert Cantley's Borneo Exotics, a wholesale nursery based in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 that specializes in the carnivorous plant genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Nepenthes

Nepenthes

The Nepenthes , popularly known as tropical pitcher plants or monkey cups, are a genus of carnivorous plants in the monotypic family Nepenthaceae. The genus comprises roughly 130 species, numerous natural and many cultivated hybrids...

. In 2005 Catalano published Coltivare le Piante Carnivore, the first Italian book about the cultivation of carnivorous plants, followed in 2009 by the English version of the same text, under the title Growing Carnivores — an Italian perspective.

As a naturalist and explorer, since 2004 Catalano has focused his research on the Nepenthes species of Indochina

Indochina

The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...

 and in 2010 he published the monograph Nepenthes della Thailandia, where he described 5 new taxa

Taxon

|thumb|270px|[[African elephants]] form a widely-accepted taxon, the [[genus]] LoxodontaA taxon is a group of organisms, which a taxonomist adjudges to be a unit. Usually a taxon is given a name and a rank, although neither is a requirement...

 from Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

: N. andamana

Nepenthes andamana

Nepenthes andamana is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Phang Nga Province, Thailand, where it grows at sea level in coastal savannah and grassland...

, N. chang

Nepenthes chang

Nepenthes chang is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to the Banthad Mountains of central Thailand, where it grows at elevations of 300–600 m above sea level...

, N. kerrii, N. suratensis

Nepenthes suratensis

Nepenthes suratensis is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Surat Thani Province, Thailand, where it grows at sea level in coastal savannah and grassland...

, and N. mirabilis var. globosa

Nepenthes mirabilis

Nepenthes mirabilis , or the Common Swamp Pitcher-Plant, is a tropical carnivorous plant species of the pitfall trap variety. It has by far the widest distribution of any Nepenthes species and is known from the following countries and regions: Borneo, Sumatra, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia,...

.