The Carnivorous Plant Web

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A Trip Through Sabah to Mt. Kinabalu
All photography by Glyn Constant and Gina Constant

To the right is Mesilau... one of the rivers flowing off of Mt Kinabalu. A 1 hour walk up the river (50% through it, the other 50% clambering over the rocks) is where one of the N. rajah sites is located. The Donkey's Ears Peaks
	Here is Gina on the Mt. Kinabalu trail, almost at the tree line at 11,000 ft. The veiw across the valley is of the twin peaks known as "The Donkey's Ears". Typical, cool montain habitat as shown in these three pictures is home to some of the highland species.

Nepenthes rajah

	N. rajah is not a climbing species It usually grows as a struggling shrub of up to 1.5m in height. It produces mainly ground pitchers. It grows only in the National Park area in ultramafic soils at an altitude of between 1600 and 2600 metres. This is reputedly the world's largest pitcher. Rajah pitchers have been recorded holding up to 2 litres of water. Both of these photos illustrate rare, upper pitchers. Note that the pitcher below hangs over water.
		Above you see mosquito larvae adapted to life in the lower pitcher of a rajah.

Nepenthes tentaculata
This species likes the damp, mossy forest and is usually found between 2500
and 8000ft. Pitchers are up to 15cms long.

1. A side view showing the hairy lid. 2. A group of 3 pitchers sitting on a moss covered fallen tree trunk. 3..A frontal view

Nepenthes villosa
Nepenthes villosa is yet another endemic species which grows only in the
National Park between 2300 and 3200m. It is a shrub-like plant growing up to
1m high with red, hairy stems to the pitchers. Ground pitchers grow up to
25cm in length. Upper pitchers are rarely found.

Vill1 Lower pitcher sitting in a mossy hollow in a dead tree
Vill2 Close up of the peristome
Vill3 A rare upper pitcher

Nepenthes stenophylla

a close up of the upper pitcher peristome

N.Stenophylla. is a submontane to montane plant found at elevations between 1000 and 2500metres through out Borneo. These pictures were taken on Mt. Silam where the plants were growing along the ridge line in mossy forest. The upper pitchers normally grow to a maximum length of about 25cm, however on Silam the majority of them were unusually large - 30cms+. Unfortunately the plants at this location were in poor condition. The majority of their pitchers were dried up.

upper pitcher hanging over a mossy log

A large, dried upper pitcher (the lighter is 8cm long) measuring 31cms. I wonder how long it was before drying up?

Nepenthes burbidgeae
This species is another which grows only within the National Park area in the altitude range of 1200 to 1600 m in ultramafic soil. It is a climbing species with upper pitchers up to 15cm tall and ground pitchers up to 25cm tall

Above is the upper pitcher; the lower type is at the right.

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