Nepenthes gracilis is a widespread and common pitcher plant from SE Asia. Its latin name describes the long slender leaves characteristic of this species. The normal colour of the pitcher is green, sometimes spotted red but at this open shrubby grassland beside the peat forest, we saw a population with completely red pitchers,almost totally covered by club moss and dried leaves..
While the pitchers are meant to catch prey, it is paradoxical that researchers had documented about 150 species of animals living within the pitchers (Phillips and Lamb 1996). These are commenals, that is they feed on excess food of the pitcher plants without doing any harm. Amongst these are frogs, tadpoles, insect larvae, crabs and crab spiders. Older pitchers are preferred since they are less acidic - so if you grow these plants, trim away the old pitchers to prevent mosquito breeding.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Nepenthes gracilis
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4 comments:
Fascinating, never thought of that aspect before. I wonder if it affects their culture say here in the UK. I wonder if it is symbiotic.
I saw a few of these plants at a local nursery last weekend, with a very large pricetag despite being obviously stressed from lack of humidity... beautiful plants, but well outside my budget right now.
Yes they need high humidity, swamp-like even, and bright indirect light. They do not have to be expensive though as many species grow readily from cuttings. If you have a local carnivorous plants club they should have spare cuttings. If not, u can email me ....
Locally, our summer humidity levels drop to well below what these plants need... And since I don't have a greenhouse, yet, (it's on my list of things to build) nepenthes are not really feasable. As much as I like them... I try not to get plants unless I'm pretty sure I can maintain them.
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