Marsh Pitchers

TimV · #1 (**permalink**) 08-26-2009, 10:36 AM

Here is one species of Heliamphora. There are only a dozen or so described yet, since they only live on the tops of a certain kind of flat mountain in Venezuela called a Tepui, and some of them are inaccessible. The spoon looking thing on the top is a nectar producing organ with a hidden reservoir. Insects come for the nectar, and perhaps the coloration, and slip down into the leaf, which is all folded and zipped up, so it can hold water in the bottom. They have a mutually beneficial relationship with certain bacteria, which digest the bugs into products that the bacteria can't use, but serve as fertilizer for the plant. They grow at high altitudes, and so have to have full sun, cool weather, constant rain but no soggy soil, so they are more than a bit rare in both nature and collections. I've had this one for 5 years and it's just starting to look nice.