Pitcher Longevity

[kltower]

I live in Kuala Lumpur. So my lowlanders are of course grown in normal tropical conditions, some fully sunned and some shaded. The highlanders are grown in high-cond room with ultrasonic humidifier to provide humidity of 70% and above. Being in air cond room, the highlanders do not catch as many bugs as the lowlanders where food are aplenty.

Generally, the pitchers of highlanders last much much longer than the lowlanders. Of course, it does not help the longevity of lowland pitchers when squirrels/tree shrews come and chew them up.

The longest life span observed was a ramispina which pitcher in February and only dried-up last Christmas.

These the observed life span of medium-large plants (pitcher size in parenthesis).

Lowlanders
rafflesiana 1 month (15 cm)
truncata 1-2 months (20 cm)
ampullaria 2-3 months (8 cm)
vikings 1-2 months (6 cm)
"thorelli" 1 month (10 cm)

Highlanders
ramispina 6-10 months (10-14 cm)
adrianii 6+ months (10-15 cm)
tobaica 6+ months (10-15 cm)
sibuyanensis 4-5 months (3 -10 cm)
sanguinea 2 months (10 cm)

So, what are your experiences?

Choong

[NepNut]

Hi Choong,
Interesting observation, thanks for sharing.

Have you observe species with faster growth will tend to have shorter pitcher life span or vice versa??

[David]

Interesting! It seems highlander's pitchers last longer than lowlanders in general from the list of species you have.

[alienfx]

kltower:Im suprised your lowlanders dont last that long.I have those normal neps and they last around 6 months to 8 months.I sometimes got bored and wait for those pitchers to root.Hehehe...Is your lowlanders fedding alot of insects or are you manual feeding it?What i observe is that when the pitcher is empty it will last very long time.More food inside pitchers means less lifespan of the pitcher.

[kentosaurs]

Hi Choong

Nice observation....Really appreciate it......Well i don't have much info on HL neps of mine as they're quite new.But for my lowland neps the longest was about 8-9 months which is now dried up ventrata...As for my miranda pitchers last around 2-4 months...Aslo my ventricosa tiny basal pitchers most has lasted 2 months....I do believe that the more the pitcher captures the faster it dies off

Ken

[isaacgoh]

My Bical Pitcher lasted more than 6 months. Stopped counting.

My Raff can last 2-3 months.

Northiana is about 3 months.

My ampullaria easily > 3 months.

[Aliamyz]

My ampullaria lasted for 5 months if i'm not mistaken.xHookeriana is about 3-4 months.

[alcran]

For me most pitchers are rather short lived. Stenophylla last three weeks and truncata and ceasar last three months before starting to die.

[plantlover]

My miranda has a few pitchers more than 5 months old. My rajah pitchers can last like 3 months-4 months while my ventrata pitchers can last 5 months.

[funkychips]

The longest lasting pitcher for my collection are from raffs, somewhere from 1- 2 months only, very shortlived even by average standards. The shortest is mirabilis. 1 week is all its got .