The nature is full of wonders, do you know which plants are called "killers"? They are the carnivorous plants. Also known as the "meat-eating plants", they catch insects and small mammals.
When mentioning carnivorous plants, one will think of Pitcher plant (Nepenthes mirabilis). Pitcher plant can be found in warm and damp environments such as bushes and rock crevices in marshes. Its leaf is prolonged into a tendril which is greatly expanded and hollowed at end, forming a "pitcher". Insects are attracted to the pitcher by its honey glands or bright colour. When insects fall into the pitcher, it is difficult for them to crawl out of it because of the slippery interior. They will eventually get drowned in the digestive juice inside the pitcher, and absorbed by the plant.
During our ecological survey, we found another tiny carnivorous plant, namely the Small Yellow Bladderwort (Utricularia bifida), in the freshwater marshes at Shui Hau. It is an emergent plant, gracefully growing above the water surface. It has an interesting Chinese common name, "Earpick Plant", referring to its earpick-like, elliptical fruits with peduncle. Such interesting plants are so tiny that we would have easily overlooked them without close observation. Equipped with tiny (just about 1mm in size) underwater bladder-liked sacs borne on leaf margins and stems, they have very responsive and sophisticated suction traps to capture prey. In preying, they first discharge the water inside the sacs in a bid to reduce the pressure within. When prey passes by and triggers the hair on the sac, the trapdoors will open, thereby sucking in the prey along with water. The whole process takes only about fifteen milliseconds!
Such carnivorous plants may be inconspicuous, but they play essential roles in ecosystems. Highly amazed by the nature, we should let more people know about the wonders therein and widely disseminate the message of nature conservation.