Plants named after feline

Cats' behavior fascinates people. They can be ferocious, or they can be indifferent. Taiwanese finds these behavior appropriate to name the plants.

On February 3, 2009, I had posted a story about a plant,called 'biting cat' 咬人貓. I had reminded my readers not to touch the leaves of 'biting cat' 咬人貓 because if you do, you will feel like bitten by 100 ants.

Last week with the field trip at Tung-Su and at an organic farm, I learned another plant called the "passing (indifferent) cat", or 過貓. "Passing cat" not only is harmless, but it is said to be good for your liver.

The biology name for ' biting cat' 咬人貓 is Urtica thunbergiana Sieb.& Zucc, It belongs to category Urticaceae, or 蕁麻科. On the other hand, 'passing cat' 過貓 is a fern. In biology it is called Anisogonium esculentum（Rexz.）Presl.

When we were at the organic fruit farm on May 3, the owner asked us to pick up 'passing cat' 過貓 for lunch; so we did.

The photo on the top show the ferocious look of the biting cat 咬人貓 plant. The middle photo shows the plant of 'passing cat' 過貓. The lower photo shows the dish prepared with 'passing cat' 過貓 at the farm.