On our earth, there are countless creatures of different forms and habits, and one type of plant almost single-handedly breaks our traditional understanding of plants, that is, "Nepenthes". We often see animals eating plants, but there are very few cases where plants can actively eat animals, and Nepenthes is a special case.
In the Asian country of Cambodia, there is a more special species of Nepenthes, which is more special, not because its "hunting" style is different from other Pitcher plants, but because of its shape. From the picture we can see that this nepenthes, has a relatively thick stem, there is a reddish "umbrella crown" on it, from a certain point of view, this plant and the male private parts are indeed very similar, no wonder the locals named it after the male private parts.
However, this nepenthes has not been particularly protected by people because of its very special form, but has attracted the "disaster of killing". Some people are not satisfied with the distance, but choose to "play blasphemously", pulling this plant out of the grass and picking it, holding it in their hands for a group photo. Recently, Cambodia's Ministry of Environment shared photos of three women snatching N. nepenthes and posing with them on Facebook and appealed to the public not to destroy these rare plants again.
In fact, this is not the first time Cambodia has issued a statement and warning on this issue, in July 2021, Cambodia on the official Facebook account, asked tourists not to pick " Bock " and " Nepenthes Holden " , because this activity of humans is likely to lead to the extinction of these plants.
" Bock " is a tropical carnivorous plant unique to Cambodia , mainly distributed in the Bogot Mountains in southern Cambodia and parts of the Elephant Mountain Range in Kampot Province , where it is a vine that can climb up to a height of 7 meters. The height of the lower cage is about 20 cm, the height of the upper cage is about 25 cm, and the width of both is about 6 cm. There is a lid on the top of the upper pitcher, which closes quickly after the insect has entered the pitcher. Rely on a strong acid with a PH as low as 2.7 or so in the cage to digest the insects.
Nepenthes Holden is also a tropical carnivorous plant endemic to Cambodia, mainly distributed in the cardamom mountains of western Cambodia, also belonging to the vine, the highest can climb to a height of 5 meters, the lower pitcher vine is about 15-25 cm long, the upper pitcher is about 20-25 cm long, the width of both is 4-6 cm, and there is also a lid at the top, the diameter of the lid is about 4 cm. Morphologically , " Nepenthes Holden " is smaller than the " Burke " plant as a whole.
From the current distribution and quantity of these two species of Nepenthes in Cambodia, showing a smaller and smaller trend, on the one hand, the two have a relatively special "demand" for the growth environment, although it belongs to tropical plants, but the demand for water is not large, and the demand for sunlight is relatively strong, so it is mainly distributed in relatively open areas such as seasonal arid savanna, semi-deciduous monsoon rain forest, seasonal drought highland bushes and so on. These areas have a long period of drought throughout the year, a large number of dry grass, leaves and hot weather, prone to natural fires, which have a "causal" impact on the population.
In terms of man-made, Cambodia is currently one of the countries with the most serious threat to biodiversity in the world, and an important factor in this problem is the interference of human activities, such as the deforestation of a large number of forests, the over-reclamation of agricultural land, the rampant hunting activities, the invasion of many alien species, the development of mineral resources, the construction of water conservancy facilities, the disorderly construction of infrastructure such as roads, and so on. Although the country has promulgated corresponding laws and regulations on ecological environmental protection and biodiversity conservation, and has also set up some nature reserves, the implementation and management of laws and regulations are not in place, there is no substantial severe punishment, and it is difficult to play a role in restraining and deterring.
In addition, in recent years, Cambodia has vigorously developed tourism, and a large number of tourists have poured into nature reserves and mountainous areas with a better ecological environment, posing a serious threat to the original ecosystem. Moreover, the management and operation and maintenance of some forests, mountains and nature reserves have been contracted to private individuals, resulting in excessive development of economic benefits and neglect of ecological and environmental protection, resulting in the deterioration of habitat conditions of many endemic species, including two species of Nepenthes, and the distribution area shows an increasingly fragmented trend and the population is getting smaller and smaller.
According to the corresponding criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, " Börke " is classified as "potentially vulnerable" and " , and " , showing that their living conditions are very severe , and if stricter conservation measures are not taken , it may not be long before we can no longer see them.
The reason why locals and some foreign tourists have picked these two kinds of Nepenthes, not because they have high economic value, nor because they have edible and medicinal value, but because people's curiosity and display psychology are at work, originally the plant is very peculiar, plus these two kinds of Nepenthes resemble men's private organs in appearance, people's "hunting psychology" is even more explosive, whether it is after picking and posing with it for a group photo, or "net red" close to it for live broadcast, Can meet people's curiosity.
As the local environmental authorities have called for, there is no problem with taking photos with these plants, but it must not be picked, and it will not cause harm or even ruin to us because of our wrong behavior.