Borneo gallery 2 - N. chaniana

[shawnintland]

Ok, moving on to another part of Borneo... here's some nice N. chaniana plants growing on a disturbed hillside on the edges of a big lumbering facility between G. Murud and the hot springs at Merarap at 1,325 m. a.s.l.. They were intermixed with N. vogelii, N. rhinewardtiana and N.fusca. This was another of those instances where Ch'ien Lee showed what a keen sense of eyesight he has honed over the years, spotting them through the dust of the logging road while traveling at a good clip and they were up a not-at-all-apparent hill about a quarter of a kilometer away! These were the first N. chaniana I have ever seen in the wild and I was struck by their sturdy and quite unique looking pitcher form growing right in the rocky/stony ground. I'm not familiar enough with them to know if they always display this 'upper'-looking pitcher form or if these were just all 'old' bushes. The bushes themselves were quite healthy, but from any more than a few meters away all one sees/notices are the big, vibrant green pitches resting on a carpet of gray, dead leaves.

Probably my favorite N. chaniana shot;


Nice, healthy female;


A plant - out standing in his field;


Hard to believe this is a female!


Lid (w/glandular boss?) and peristome


Under lid and peristome;


stem;



lid;




Forming pitcher;


For scale; Drew is not a little guy!


Overall site view;


So I'm wondering...does anybody out there grow these?

~Shawn

[rainforest]

Chaniana is an interesting species with its lime green pitchers. perhaps more flying insect prey? I used to believe that ground pitchers were reserved for crawling and terrestrial insects (ants, beetles, roaches, etc.) where color played a role in attraction and uppers being seen by insects which do not rely on color but rather UV light pathfinders. Were you able to see any of the prey inside?

M