Plant of the Week 10/13/2003: (Nepenthes ampullaria)

Plant of the Week 10/13/2003

Nepenthes ampullaria Jack

Photographed by: Chelsie Vandaveer
Credits: Photographed Nepenthes gift from Tom Massey
Other Information: Olympus C-4000 zoom

Nepenthes ampullaria Jack is a carnivorous plant native to swamps in the humid tropical lowlands of the Malaysian Peninsula, Sumatra, Singapore, Borneo, and New Guinea. The species was 'discovered' in 1819 by William Jack, a botanist and surgeon with the East India Company. William Jack's discoveries of the unique species of the Oceanic Islands helped encourage the founding of the Singapore Botanic Gardens in 1822. William Jack died that same year at age 27. The plant's name and description were published in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine in 1835. (w3TROPICOS, Missouri Botanical Garden)

Nepenthes ampullaria is a woody vine that forms rosettes of trapping leaves. In hanging basket cultivation, the rosettes usually arise from the base when the original vine droops off the side of the pot. In its native habitat, the rosettes may arise anywhere along the vine. The basal ascidia (traps) are numerous and squatty; the upper ascidia are few and more cylindrical in shape. The operculum (lid) is narrow and opens completely allowing rain to enter. 'Amps' often have a dusty appearance due to thick coating of fine trichomes (hairs).

On the Malaysian Peninsula, 'amps' are visited by a freshwater crab (Geosesarma malayanum Ng & Lim). The crab 'robs' the traps of drown insects. The crab is not a neat eater and this trait is thought to benefit the 'amp'. Small broken pieces of the insect fall back into the ascidium. These pieces are digested faster with less chance of rotting. The quicker digestion makes the nutrients readily available for plant growth. ("Carnivory in Byblis Revisited II: The Phenomenon of Symbiosis on Insect Trapping Plants", Siegfried Hartmeyer, International Carnivorous Plant Society Newsletter, 1998)