My N. Mirabilis var. echinostoma has a salty peristome!

[Durban]

Originally Posted by David

Can you share the conditions where your plant grows? To me this is a very fussy plant. Great that your plant is doing so well.

These are my growing conditions:

All my lowland Nepenthes are in a hermetically sealed greenhouse outside under a metal awning. People often ask why i don`t grow them in the open. Well, while our weather is very sunny and warm, the humidity can drop really low for months on end, so keeping the plants in a greenhouse solves this. I keep the greenhouse out the sun or else it would cook, also it protects it from our violent storms in Summer, when we often get golf ball-size hail and damaging winds.

Light: The plants get indirect daylight (no sun), they also get 800W of Metal Halide and HO fluorescent lighting 14 hours a day.

Temps: 30c-32c in the day, 26c-28c at night, often the temps can reach 38c in the day in Summer.

Humidity: 70%-90%

Media: 2/4 Canadian Sphagnum Peat, 1/4 Perlite (dead), 1/4 Medium Pine Bark

Watering: Once weekly with RO water, 0 PPM

I have had the plant for almost a year and a half, but only recently has it`s nectar tasted salty. I`ve noticed that it never has more than three living pitchers on it at any one time, and that the lids wither long before the pitchers die, often a month before this. Also, it is doing something else unbelievable, see my other thread for the crazy details!

Hope this all helps.

[Durban]

Originally Posted by cpnut

Hi Durban,
Very interesting nep you have there!! Usually pitchers will secrete nectars to attract insects... But now since you discover your pitcher produce salty deposits, it's sort of make sense to me...

Anyone remember seeing Wildlife documentary/when trekking in the forest on how insects (especially butterflies) congregate in large numbers in one spot "licking" mineral salts from the ground ?? I think some animals also behaved to same way... Might this N. mirabilis "found" another way to attract it's intented prey?? Hmm.... Very interesting indeed...

BTW, welcome to PP and looking forward to see your pics on your collection, thanks.

Thanks, you are totally right, many butterflies will drink out muddy pools or even other animal`s urine, i see it where i live quite often. The only way to know for sure is to camp out in front of one of the wild plants for a few days and monitor what insects it catches. I bet it`s a butterfly specialist!

[arvin555]

I'm not sure how nepenthes will be able to catch Butterflies, as I imagine the wings will be too bit to fit in most mouths/opening, unless it's a small species of butterfly. Maybe some other kind of insect that has the need for salt like butterflies? Another way is to inspect and do a study on what insects are found in pitchers in the wild.

TTFN
Arvin