Scientific Name
Nepenthes ampullaria Jack (unresolved name) [1]
Synonyms
No documentation.
Vernacular Name
| Malaysia | Akar periuk kera, periuk kera, akar cerek-cerek [2] |
| English | Pitcher plant, tropical pitcher plant, monkey pot [2] |
| Indonesia | Kantong teko (General); ketakong betul (Bangka); katidieng boruak (West Sumatra) [2] |
| Thailand | Cho mokaeng, mokaeng khaang (Pattani); blaa-ngokue-ko (Malay-Pattani) [2]. |
Geographical Distributions
Nepenthes ampullaria is distributed in Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and New Guinea. [2] N. ampullaria grows in damp, shady forests, swamps and heath forests (Borneo), Araucaria forest (New Guinea), secondary forests, open microphyllous vegetation and swamp grasslands, usually up to 200 m altitude, occasionally as high as 2100 m. [2]
Botanical Description
N. ampullaria is a member of the Nepenthaceae family. It is a terrestrial climber that can reach up to 15 m tall, with many terrestrial and few aerial rosettes, and with densely velvety indumentum of red-brown hairs in the young parts. Its stem is cylindrical measuring 1-1.5 cm in diameter. The internodes are 1.5-8 cm long. At the foot of the older plants, lateral rosettes with pitchers are present. [2]
The leaves are sessile. The blade is thickly leathery, lance-shaped to spoon-shaped, where the undersurface is with red hairs. The rosette leaves measure 2-5 cm x 0.5 cm while the climbing leaves measure 12-25 cm x 3-6 cm. The base is attenuate and clasps the stem by half of its circumference. [2]
The lower pitchers are obliquely urn-shaped, semicircular on dorsal side, almost ventrally flat, measuring 2-10 cm x 9 cm, usually green, deeply flecked with maroon, rarely entirely red but sometimes whitish-yellow with pale pink flecks, with 2 fringed wings up to 1.5 cm broad, with fringe elements 0.5-1 cm long and 1-1.5 mm apart. The mouth part is oval and almost horizontal. The peristome is 3-15 mm wide, flattened and sloping steeply inwards with the ribs about 0.2-0.3 mm apart. [2]
The lid is narrowly oblanceolate, and measures up to 4 cm x 1.5 cm. The lower surface is without appendages and with sparse or absent nectar glands. The spur is simple or branched, measures up to 1 cm long, whereas the upper pitchers are generally not developed, rudimentary, broadly funnel-shaped and measure about 2 cm x 2 cm. [2]
The male inflorescence is a panicle that measures up to 40 cm x 4-5 cm. The partial inflorescences are usually 8-12 cm long and with 3-6 flowers. The pedicel is 7-8 mm long. The tepals are broadly elliptical, measure 4-5 mm x 3-5 mm, and green to yellow. The androphore is 3-5 mm long. The female inflorescence and flowers are almost similar. [2]
The fruit is 2-3 cm long and with valves 2-3.5 mm wide in the middle. The seed is 10-15 mm long. [2]
Cultivation
No documentation.
Chemical Constituent
No documentation.
Plant Part Used
No documentation.
Traditional Use
No documentation.
Preclinical Data
No documentation.
Clinical Data
No documentation.
Poisonous Management
No documentation.
Line Drawing
References
- The Plant List. Ver1.1. Nepenthes ampullaria Jack [homepage on the Internet]. c2013 [updated 2012 Mar 23; cited 2016 Jun 30]. Available from: http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2384963
- Brink M, Escobin RP, editors. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 17: Fibre plants. Leiden, Netherlands: Backhuys Publishers; 2003.
