N. macfarlanei territory

[David]

As Choong (KLtower) has mentioned, I went with him on wednesday to see N. macfarlanei growing in the wild. The plants were growing in a mossy forest in the highlands about 1600 ft from sea level. Simply a beautiful sight.

We also found some N. gracilis at 600 ft.

Enjoy the pictures...


This is a view from the mossy forest. The mist is moving in...


Spotted the first mac...


Orange sphagnum moss growing on the cliff side...


Young plant with lover pitchers...


The media they are growing on...


Baby plantlets growing next to s.moss...


close view of the s.moss...


As we move deeper into the forest, the temperature was lower and the plants were getting bigger...




uppers...




lowers...


The mossy forest is just beyong the hill...


Nice elegant and proud pitcher...






Mac hanging on verticle cliffs that has water dripping down continiously...


Found bugs ans ants in the picthers...


This one has a huge spider in it. That poor fella must have felt hungry and tried to steal a meal from the picther. Must have slipped, fell in and drown. Looks like a trap door spider to me... or is it a tarantula...


what a beauty...


N. ramispina also grows here but in small populations. I think this is a hybrid...


Mac growing on pure s. moss...


N. ramispina...


The lower pitchers in many instances are embedded in s. moss...




ramispina also growing on s.moss...


Walking into the mossy forrest... more like Sphagnum moss forest... haaa, haa, haaaa...




Baby plantlets growing on s. moss...


ramispina...


Found this cute but beautiful ant plant. Looks like the ant plants are giving shelter to the ants. The ants are feeding on the nep nectar and feeding the neps at the same time. A perfect balance of the cycle of life...


Found another media where neps grow on in the wild...




another view of the mossy forest...



Here are pictures of the nep colony at 600 ft...

That's Choong leading the way...


N. gracilis...


Population of N. sanguinea. The plants in this location seems to grow under "lalang", grass and ferns...









The media here seems to have alot of clay. However, the fern roots and grass roots provides alot of air space...


Nice moss...


More Sanguinea...


This is how most of the place look like...


Choong in the bushes trying to take a picture of the neps... ;D


Found a case of infanticide here. I promise neither Choong or me stage this picture...


The soil on anotehr corner of this place...


ramispina...

[sockhom]

Thanks for this field report David! That's tremendous.
I don't know which sight i prefered: the orange Sphagnum moss, the ramispina uppers or those proud macfarlanei...

I think i'll stick to those macfarlanei: a thrilling species.


François.

[rainforestguy]

At what lowest elevation were the macfarlanei's found? Interestingly were the gracilis found any higher than 600?

M

[Robert]

interesting report and nice pics.

[bucky78]

WOW! Thanks for the amazing pics. Thanks also for the pics of the soil in which they grow in. Very interesting.

[kltower]

David,

A very nice report. Unfortunately, I couldn't add more pictures as my camera ran out of juice early.

By the way, the gracilis is found at 1200m elevation.

The mossy forest is at 1700m. The place is very wet and plants receive alot of mist. At the mossy forest, the macfarlanei and ramispina receive very little filtered light.

My last visit was a year ago. It is good to see that the trail is heavy covered with undergrowth, meaning no or very visitors had been to the place during the period. On my last trip, I found no sanguineas and now there are afew. On one location, we found sanguinea, ramispina and macfarlanei growing within 1 ft apart.

On the lower elevation site, during my last visit, I found only big mature plants and no seedlings. This time around, it is the opposite. The adult plants are gone but the baby plants remained hidden in the fern bushes. Of course, this is expected as this place receives alot of hotel/resort guests.

Choong

[agustinfranco]

Hi David, Choong and everyone else:

To define a territory as macfarlanei only, is a bit premature as most of us are well aware of the interactions amongst three species populations: sanguinea, ramispina,and macfarlanei. I wonder whether there are isolated population of those three in the wild?.

A question for Choong: how often does one find those ramispina X macfarlanei hybrids?. Have you seen sanguineas X macfarlaneis in the wild too?

Also for some reason, macfarlanei is seen very rarely on private collections. Is that difficult to grow, considering that the other two species are commonly found in greenhouses?

Thanks

Gus

[phissionkorps]

From what I've heard, macfarlanei isn't too difficult, just kind of slow. I'd love to give it a go if I could get one from a lower elevation....around 1000m (ironically, I'm located exactly at 1000m).

Currently, only 1 place in the US to my knowledge is selling it.

[nepenthes]

Wow, very nice pics and write-up David. You are truly fortunate to have the opportunity to go check out the plants in their natural habitat. Thank you for sharing!

[rainforestguy]

Finding pure species of ramispina and macfarlanei and sanguinea can be tricky. i recently received seed of N. ramispina and while this species (previously only grown from tc material) has never fared well for me in the tropics, their seedlings seem to grow and develop with ease.
I believe these could be hybrids and while some skeptics will say these are growing well because they are hybrids, a purebred species of ramispina should do equally as well.

I will try to take some snap shots of these as evidence that seed grown material does really grow well at lower elevations than previously done so.

M

[kltower]

Gus,

I think what David meant is that N. macfarlanei are only found in higher elevation.

At the mossy forest ramispina and macfarlanei exist side-by-side. You can find their seedlings together buried in the moss. So hybrid between these two is not unexpected (21st photo is macfarlane-ramispina hybrid).

While ramispina are found at higher elevations, I have seen a few ramispina at 1200m in the sanguinea territory.

Because, sanguinea is so variable - red, dk red, green, orangy-speckle and spoted, hybrid between sanguinea and macfarlanei is harder to define.

Michael, finding pure ramispina and sanguinea is possible as there are sites where the species grow exclusively.

Ron, I think it is possible to grow macfarlanei at 1000m, so long as you can give it the cool and misty environment. Perhaps a humidifier will help as I think Texas is too dry.

Choong

[phissionkorps]

Macfarlanei has been found as low as 1000m, which is promising. In case you don't know about it, this is my favorite way of quickly referencing elevations: home.sdirekt-net.de/mwelge5/arten/nep_tab.htm
Hochlandartern = highlanders, Tieflandartern = lowlanders, intermediären = intermediates. If you'd like to know what the little notes and whatnot say on the pages, just ask and I'll translate them.

I'm very curious as to how it would do for me, especially a lower elevation form. My conditions are probably best described as lowland/intermediate, because for about 6 months, my plants are kept between 83-90°F always, and for 6 months, they get about 83 day, 65 night. I think I have humidity covered for the moment. You can see pictures of my current set-up here: petpitcher.proboards61.com/index.cgi?board=projects&action=display&thread=1200389014
Humidity is high enough that water condenses on the sheeting.

West Texas (where I live) is dry as a bone. Right now, we have 20% humdity...and that's high for us. Some parts of Central and almost all of East Texas is pretty much tropical for most of the year. The city my parents live in is at the moment experiencing 95% humidity.....even though its 47°. Texas is a big, big, big place.

[David]

kltower said:

By the way, the gracilis is found at 1200m elevation.

Ops! Sorry, I gave out the wrong info.

Thanks Choong for correcting me and giving further information. That's important.

[kltower]

Interestingly, since N. gracilis is found amongst N. sanguinea, can there be a natural hybrid between them? Maybe we should look for it the next time.

Choong

[phissionkorps]

The only recorded natural hybrids with sanguinea are with macfarlanei, albo, and ramispina.

Interesting you guys found gracilis so high. One place lists it from 0-750m, while the table in the link I provided above lists it from 0-1100m.