[Robert]

Recently I explored an area where it was hardly visited except by hunters and farmers looking for wild ferns and wild vegetables. It was a normal heath forest with the common lowlanders like ampullaria, mirabilis, gracilis , rafflesiana, and hybrids.

Observing every single neps that I came across hoping to find an interesting clone. Wandering further ampullaria dominate the landscape. I was amazed at by the ampullaria here . They are huge!. What intrigued me most were their size and colours.

a young amp.with huge rosette pitchers





more ground basal and aerial basal

It seem that the colour in most of the form here are unstable ie in one rosette an all green one among he red lips.


within the same rosette their colours and pitchers size are not uniform. Does this mean the pitchers are individualistic in their hunting skill?


light brown lip,green one and dark red on this rosette


3 all green pitchers among the red lips


a light brown among the maroon lip (upper right and some have very faint light brown lips)


as usual huge pitchers


This was by far the biggest and most spectacular ampullaria with dark red peristome. Beating the all green one i saw from kuching.

the size-peristome width 3⅛", across 1 7/8" and height 5 1/8". It can contained a whooping 600ml of water ::).







Finally a bizarre plant behaviour-ginger plant growing on ampullaria.



an ampullaria with 2 lids. was it deformed?


any idea of the unequal pitcher size, and different colour of pitchers within the same rosette? :?

Robert

This post has been edited by Robert: 17th September 2007 - 14:15 PM

[Guest_Aidan_*]

Stunning!

I guess the obvious thing to say is that intensity of colouration may be an effect of ageing. Taking the fourth photo as an example and looking at the leaf rosette, the green pitcher appears to be the youngest.

[Stephen Crane]

Keep it up Robert. Ampullaria are a fascinatingly diverse species worthy of their own study.. maybe you could go into this a bit further?
I know I would be interested in a comprehensive study espeacially from someone localy involved!

[An D Smith]

WOW, WOW and WOW again!!

Great photos, please keep them coming.

Cheers
Andy

[Robert]

Hi again, thanks for the reading.
Aidan, while it may be true from the 4th photo but rosette pitchers usually grow at the same rate simultaneously. Their sizes are mostly uniform by a slight different. The case here are very different.

[Graham]

Hi Robert,

Excellent photo's of one of my favourite neps. Thanks for posting.

[Sockhom]

Wow (bis)! Excellent find Robert !

This is just amazing. Any idea about what makes this ampullaria so big? A litter bed made of osmocote maybe ?


Friendly,

François.

This post has been edited by Sockhom: 28th August 2007 - 23:05 PM

[Robert]

Wow (bis)! Excellent find Robert !

This is just amazing. Any idea about what makes this ampullaria so big? A litter bed made of osmocote maybe ?
Friendly,

François.

No idea François. I can only evaluate generally from site observation. All the plants there have the same growing conditions.

1/The plants were old and therefore they bear huge pitchers but there are many old ones around too and pitchers were less than half the size of the "giants".

2/They were no ordinary form. True, from site observation. Observing their growing behaviour their pitchers from the same rosette don't form simultaneously. pitcher size vary greatly-newly formed pitcher from the same rosette can have bigger pitcher than that formed earlier.

3/ One or more pitchers tend to bear different colours. Pitchers are fresh, doesn't looked old or dying.

This post has been edited by Robert: 30th August 2007 - 01:57 AM

[flytrapcody]

HOLY CRAP!!! those things could eat your hand. NO joke! That right there is a perfect example of a "man eater"

[Stephen Crane]

Is it possible to study this species for a while as well as its neighbours to determine whether it is a larger growing specimen? also would it be possible to take vegatative material to grow on to see if this trait continues in cultivation? Hopefully the area is not in danger..

[Robert]

Is it possible to study this species for a while as well as its neighbours to determine whether it is a larger growing specimen? also would it be possible to take vegatative material to grow on to see if this trait continues in cultivation? Hopefully the area is not in danger..

This is agood idea. The place is not in danger of destruction at the moment.

[chesara]

Wow
Thats the biggest Amps i have ever seen
Bye for now Julian

[Robert]

Thanks and welcome, Julian