David : Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

[Amelie.Poulain]

David
Joined: Dec 2006
Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

I was at Cameron Highlands Resort for work on Friday and Saturday (9-10 March). It was true what I heard about a wild population of neps behind the resort. It is located at Tanah Rata. It used to be the old Merlin hotel. It was bought over by YTL and now it is Cameron Highlands Resort. The resort faces the golf course.

I purposely borrowed a camera and manage to take quite a few pictures. Will try to upload it here in the next 1-2 days. Spoke to the naturalist in the resort. It was nice to know that they are planing to make that little hill a conservatory garden for plants.

I spotted a few N. sanguinea plants there and a N. macfarlanei plant. There might be some hybrids. Not sure. Will post here and we'll identify them.

Robert
Joined: Jan 2007
Re: Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

It is amazing N.sanguinea and N.macfarlanei survive the onslaught of devp. in the area. Looking forward to your post

David
Joined: Dec 2006
Re: Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

Ok, here are the pictures...

These are N. sanguinea. The red form. The first two pictures are the upper pitchers.








Here are N. sanguinea, dark marroon to black form. Check out the two eye spots just below the peristome. I did not know sanguinea has these eye spots too.

These are also upper pitchers.







Look at the red vine/stem of this plant. seldom see this in cultivation but it does appear in sanguinea.



Giant size sanguinea pitcher. This really blew me away. By the way, that's not my hand... hee, heee... That's the resort Naturalist, Shahril, giving me a hand with the picture.





Young sanguinea shaded by the ferns and grass...



Developing pitcher...



A spider at the peristome of the pitcher waiting to steal an insect from the pitcher. Funny this upper pitcher is quite small and it is cream colour instead of the usual red, green or dark maroon that is comon to sanguinea.





Another cream colour pitcher. This is much bigger than the one above.





Peeped into one pitcher to see the prey it has caught. Not much in there. Only some small ant size insects. but spotted a wriggling worm in the fluid. It is on the left side. Don worry. The pitcher lid was not broken or injured in any way.





Clumps of plants...




Ok, these should be N. macfarlanei. Correct me if I am wrong. Some of them might be hybrids with sanguinea. Not sure. Need expert help here...









This is the hill behind the resort. This picture was taken on the first floor balcony of the resort. See that earth trail up the little hill. They are making some steps there so that guest can go an admire the plants and neps there.

This area is about 1500 meters above sea level. The habitat is the typical sanguinea habitat, ie. open, stoney ground at the side of cliffs or landslides.



cactustts
Joined: Dec 2006
Re: Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

Wow!!! Those are really jawdrop pictures, great job David, thanks for sharing.

zakhren
Joined: Feb 2007
Re: Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

Wow great pics! I actually stayed at the merlin a few years ago. Had no idea that was behind it.

Robert
Joined: Jan 2007
Re: Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

WhoHOooo.. those stunning giant sanguniea

David
Joined: Dec 2006
Re: Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

Just to re confirm. Are those macfarlanei in the last 4-5 pictures? I am quite sure the first one is but the rest below seems to be upper pitchers but does not look like macfarlanei uppers. Perhaps those are hybrids?

ding
Joined: May 2007
Re: Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

hi. regarding to the eyes spot inside the nepenthes, i remember that once there's a n.reinwardtiana arguably collected from one of the mountains in *****ula malaysia. did you all consider it before? so far as long as i concern, n.reinwardtiana is the only species i know that has two eyes spot inside the pitcher.

isaacgoh
Joined: Jan 2007
Re: Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

Really wonderful pitchers and pictures. Thanks for sharing David. Next time I'm in Cameron I'll look out for any interesting neps. Usually I always look out for wild orchid collected by the orang asli but sometimes will see neps with leaves only without the pitchers, so it's quite out to make out what type they are, didn't buy any so far.

I remember while I was a teenager I used to go hiking a lot in cameron and saw many floras along my hikes. Too bad I can't remember my tracks anymore.

fishingman
Joined: Apr 2007
Re: Nepenthes in Cameron Highlands

Nice pics David. The place you went is a protected place right? If not then the place sure kena poached kau kau one-lah.
I also noticed that most of the neps that the orang asli take out are planted with soil as the medium making repotting into sphagnum really difficult. I tried once and the plant died.