Q: What are the carnivorous hepatics like?

A: Recent research suggests that a hepatic (liverwort) species traps protists (you know, protozoans). Whether it digests them has not been demonstrated. The liverwort species responsible is Colura zoophaga, from Kenya, Africa. It is a tiny liverwort which lives on the twigs of Cliffortia nitida (Rose family). It traps the ciliate protist Blepharisma americana.

Page citations: Barthlott et al. 2000.