Nepenthes ampullaria

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iNepenthes ampullaria

N. ampullaria from Borneo

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Nepenthaceae
Genus:	Nepenthes
Species:	N. ampullaria

Binomial name

Nepenthes ampullaria
Jack, 1835

Synonyms

Nepenthes ampullacea
Low, 1848 sphalm. typogr.
Nepenthes ampullaria
auct. non Jack: Jeanneney, 1894
[=N. vieillardii]

Nepenthes ampullaria (Latin: ampulla = a flask-like bladder) is a very distinctive and widespread species of Nepenthes, 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.

1 Carnivory
2 Forms and varieties
3 Natural hybrids
4 Gallery
5 References

[edit] Carnivory

N. ampullaria 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.

The species has developed several unique traits as a consequence of its adaptation to trapping leaf litter:

It is the only species in the genus to lack "lunate" cells in its pitchers (Pant & Bhatnagar, 1977). These are modified stomatal guard cells which, it is thought, deny prey a foothold in the pitcher (Lloyd, 1942).
The pitcher lid is atypical, being very small and relflexed, such that leaf litter is allowed to fall directly into the pitcher.
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, such that there is little or no conductive waxy zone (Macfarlane, 1893; Jebb, 1991; Clarke, 1997). The waxy zone functions by causing prey to slip and fall into the digestive fluid.
The plant's architecture, consisting of subsurface runners and offshoots, is unusual for the genus. The species often forms a "carpet" of pitchers covering the soil. This serves to maximise the area over which falling debris may be intercepted.
The pitchers of N. ampullaria are relatively long-lived, as the species relies on a slow accumulation of nutrients over time.
It is thought that infaunal organisms, such as mosquito larvae, facilitate breakdown of leaf litter and aid in the transfer of nitrogen from it to the plant by means of the excretion of ammonium ions. Bacterial breakdown of leaf matter is also known to produce ammonium ions.

It has been shown that foliar stable Nitrogen isotope (¹⁵N) abundance in N. ampullaria plants growing under forest canopy (litterfall present) is significantly lower than in plants without access to litterfall. Conversely, total Nitrogen concentrations are higher in these plants compared to those growing in open sites with no litterfall. It has been estimated that N. ampullaria plants growing under forest canopy derive 35.7% (±0.1%) of their foliar Nitrogen from leaf litter (Moran et al.., 2003).

[edit] Forms and varieties

N. ampullaria var. geelvinkiana Becc., 1886
N. ampullaria var. guttata D.Moore, 1872
N. ampullaria var. longicarpa Becc., 1886
N. ampullaria var. microsepala Macf., 1911
N. ampullaria var. papuana Becc., in sched. nom.nud.
N. ampullaria var. picta Hort. ex Nichols., 1885
N. ampullaria var. racemosa Adam & Wilcock, 1990
N. ampullaria var. vittata Hort. ex G.Beck, 1895
N. ampullaria var. vittata-major Mast., 1872

[edit] Natural hybrids

N. albomarginata × N. ampullaria
N. ampullaria × N. bicalcarata
N. ampullaria × N. gracilis [=N. × trichocarpa]
(N. ampullaria × N. gracilis) × N. bicalcarata [=N. × trichocarpa × N. bicalcarata]
N. ampullaria × N. hirsuta
N. ampullaria × N. mirabilis [=N. × kuchingensis, Nepenthes cutinensis]
N. ampullaria × N. rafflesiana [=N. × hookeriana]
N. ampullaria × N. reinwardtiana
N. ampullaria × N. tobaica

Nepenthes × trichocarpa

Nepenthes × hookeriana

[edit] Gallery

Terrestrial rosettes of N. ampullaria from Bako National Park	Green pitcher, Bako National Park	Rosette plants, Bako N. P.	"Carpet" of pitchers, Bako N. P.
Cultivated plant from Kuching, Sarawak			Remains of N. ampullaria after forest was burned to make way for rice plantations
Inflorescences protruding above vegetation
		Upper pitcher	Upper pitcher of red form

[edit] References

Clarke et al. (2000). Nepenthes ampullaria. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
Clarke, C.M. 1997. Nepenthes of Borneo. Natural History Publications, Kota Kinabalu, pp. 65-68.
Clarke, C.M. 2001. Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia. Natural History Publications, Kota Kinabalu, pp. 59-60.
Jebb, M.H.P. 1991. An account of Nepenthes in New Guinea. Science in New Guinea 17(1): 7-54.
Lloyd, F.E. 1942. The Carnivorous Plants. Chronica Botanica New York, U.S.A. xvi + 352 pp.
Macfarlane, J.M. 1893. Observations on pitchered insectivorous plants. Part II. Annals of Botany 7: 403-458.
Moran, J.A., C.M. Clarke & B.J. Hawkins 2003. From Carnivore to Detritivore? Isotopic Evidence for Leaf Litter Utilization by the Tropical Pitcher Plant Nepenthes ampullaria. International Journal of Plant Sciences 164: 635–639.
Pant, D.D. & S. Bhatnagar 1977. Morphological studies in Nepenthes (Nepenthaceae). Phytomorphology 27: 13-34.