Nepenthes ampullaria

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Nepenthes ampullaria (Latin: ampulla = a flask-like bladder) is a very distinctive and widespread species, present in Borneo, Sumatra, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and New Guinea. It is not generally considered to be closely related to any other species in the genus and is thus often used as the 'outlier' species for cladistic analyses.

The species has largely moved away from carnivory and acquires most of its nutrients from digesting leaf matter that falls to the forest floor. It could thus be called a detritivore.

N. ampullaria has developed several unique traits as a consequence of its adaptation to trapping leaf litter:

• It is the only species in the genus whose pitchers do not possess "lunate" cells (Pant & Bhatnagar, 1977), the modified stomatal guard cells that function to deny prey a foothold once inside the pitcher (Lloyd, 1942).
• The pitcher lid is atypical, being very small and relflexed, such that debris are allowed to fall directly into the pitcher from above.
• Nectar glands, which play an important role in prey capture, are very rare and in some cases completely absent from the pitcher lid.
• The marginal glands of the peristome are greatly reduced compared to those of other species.
• In terrestrial pitchers, the glandular region extends almost to the peristome, so that there is little or no conductive waxy zone (Macfarlane, 1893; Jebb, 1991; Clarke 1997). The function of the waxy zone is to cause prey to slip into the digestive fluid.
• The plant's architecture, consisting of subsurface runners and offshoots, is atypical of the genus as a whole. The species often forms a "carpet" of pitchers covering the soil. Such an arrangement maximises the trapping area for the interception of falling material.
• The pitchers of N. ampullaria are very long-lived, as the species relies on a slow accumulation of nutrients over time.
• Infaunal organisms, such as mosquito larvae, facilitate breakdown of leaf litter and aid in the tranfer of nitrogen from it to the plant by means of the excretion of ammonium ions.

Forms and Varieties

• "var. typica (Jack)"
• * 'Cantley's Red' (G & G)
• * "f. green" (G & G)
• * "f. spotted" (G & G)
• * "f. straits-spotted, red peristome" (G & G)
• * "f. Sumatra spotted" (G & G)
• * "f. Red Moon"
• * "f. William's Red"
• * "f. Tricolor"
• * "f. Hot Lips"
• var. racemosa (Adam & Wilcock)

Gallery

References

• Clarke et al (2000). [Nepenthes ampullaria]. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
• Clarke, C. 1997. Nepenthes of Borneo. Natural History Publications, Kota Kinabalu, pp. 65-68.
• Clarke, C. 2001. Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia. Natural History Publications, Kota Kinabalu, pp. 59-60.