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Post by Rick Hillier on Apr 12, 2007 18:13:28 GMT -5
Greetings,
My N. truncata has done something that I've never seen before... A few weeks ago, I had fed the pitcher a bunch of dead silkworms (the live ones are for my bearded dragons) and it responded by producing an enormous quantity of digestive juice to a point where it is overflowing and I have to mop the "soup" up from the tabletop.
This is not a small pitcher, at least for me, it isn't. The pitcher is between 10 and 11 inches tall and fairly robust.
I've had to take a syringe and suck a pile of the juice out of the one pitcher and put it into a second, somewhat larger one on the same plant.
Has anyone ever seen this happen before?
>>> Rick <<<
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Post by tom on Apr 12, 2007 18:18:34 GMT -5
Wow, it seems to love it! Give me your secret silk worm recipe, Chef! Never ever heard of something like this... a bit disgusting, but quite interesting... please, no photo
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Post by Flytrap on Apr 12, 2007 20:33:20 GMT -5
Hey! Let's Can it... and market it Mmmm- mmmm- good!AND it's CITES approved!
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Post by Syble on Apr 12, 2007 20:43:24 GMT -5
I can imagine! I recently did an experiment on one of my truncata pitchers. I marked where the fluid lever rests when there's no food, then I added a small pinch of granular fish food then marked where the fluid flushed to in 24hours and then again in 48hours. I seam to remember it getting to half full and that was off only a pinch. Actually if you look at the first picture in the contest section, you can see the 3 marks. It's definately on my limited feed list, but then again, look at the mutant growth! Sib
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Post by insectivore on Apr 12, 2007 20:50:26 GMT -5
Never seen that before... Cya
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Post by vraev on Apr 12, 2007 20:54:20 GMT -5
interesting...I thought the pitcher just collected water from my frequent spraying. My ventrata...after feeding with like wax worms and crickets...the pitchers seemed to be fuller....I thought thats becos I am nowadays spraying them pretty frequently...which seems to help as its showing nice pitcher production...But I never guessed that insects actually stimulate the plant to produce more digestive juices. Pretty neat finding guys!!
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Post by mabudon on Apr 13, 2007 6:28:26 GMT -5
GROSS!!! Varun- the liquid inside MOST Nepenthes pitchers comes from the inside of the stem, only a little of it would be from condensation, that's why the levels fluctuate regardless of rainfall Some species have "open mouths" for their pitchers, so I'm sure there's more actual "water" in them- Flytrap is the one among us who's seen the most Neps in habitat (heck, possibly "Any", I sure haven't seen them) so he'd be the one to give any field observations DAMN posting alll that I STILL have that icky picture in me head, all that glop oozing out, YEECH
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Post by Rick Hillier on Apr 13, 2007 7:28:33 GMT -5
Flytrap: You must have as much spare time on your hands as I do That is absolutely freaking hilarious! >>> Rick <<<
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Post by vraev on Apr 13, 2007 8:48:33 GMT -5
lol! I don't see it to be too gross! I actually remember I accidentally tasted a bit of the drool on the pitcher. it is pretty sweet....sweet nectar. ...Alright then...I'll stop before carl throws up
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Post by Rick Hillier on Apr 13, 2007 10:19:49 GMT -5
I think mabudon was referring to the soup inside of the pitcher. The stuff on the peristome is nectar and is indeed quite tasty.
>>> Rick <<<
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Post by Flytrap on Apr 13, 2007 10:46:42 GMT -5
I've got an old video somewhere... I think I taped it off PBS back in the late 80's of a Borneo tribe who collected nep pitchers full of dead bugs. They would stuff these dirty pitchers full of rice or something, and roast it over the fire where it gave the rice some flavour. As for fluid levels, I've never drank the syrupy nep soup in an unopened pitcher ... but have used it as an itch relief when I was eaten alive by mosquitoes on my Nep jungle treks. My colleague, a Mr. Tan (author of the book CPs of Singapore) did drink the soup I recall. As for observing fluid levels changing with added prey, I got to admit, I've never noticed this before . I guess I'll pay closer attention now. Mind you, it does make sense for the plant to increase digestive juices to break down the trapped critter. There is one photo I wish I had taken years ago. I had a large truncata pitcher (a newly opened one), which I fed a large dead goldfish (hey why waste protein?)... the pitcher stunk up so badly that you can smell my greenhouse blocks away. I then folded the upper third of the pitcher over the rotting carcass and gunk below... but it still reeked like heck. Finally, after 2 weeks, I cutted off the fairly young pitcher and tossed it into a hole and buried it in my garden. (where's the barf smiley when you need it?)
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Post by lloyd on Apr 13, 2007 10:52:30 GMT -5
That's pretty disgusting. I think you deserve to be smited for that post. It reminds me of the time my 7 year old severum (tropical fish) died and I buried it in the back yard. It was way too big for the porcelain fish repository. Strangely enough it was the only thing that the skunks/squirrels/raccoons/foxes/cats never dug up.
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