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The Swamp

All photography by Glyn Constant and Gina Constant

Here is a good habitat shot taken in Brunei.
Gina is wading through a swamp checking for Nepenthes. Within view of this shot grow: N.gracilis, N.bicalcarata, N.mirabilis, N.rafflesiana (var elongata), N.gracilis x bicalcarata, N.gracilis x mirabilis and N.bicalcarata x mirabilis

Fortunately there are no leeches in this area, just an abundance of mosquitoes and the occasional snake - pit vipers being the only poisonous ones

Nothing to do with Nepenthes but this isa Rafflesia, reputedly the largest flowers in the world - this is only a small one. On the way between Nepenthes sites we saw a sign at the roadside indicating that we were passing a Forest Dept. Rafflesia site, having never seen one we went in. It had rained quite heavily that day and the guide warned us that it was about a 45 min. walk through leech infested primary jungle to see the only one in flower. We quickly donned long pants, tucked these into long socks and gave ourselves a more than generous coating of insect repellent - including a good coating over our trainer shoes.

. River.... A typical Borneo river with the jungle closing in on either side.

Off we set and it was a damp but beautiful walk down hill on a well defined trail. After 10 mins our guide stopped on a patch of ground with no leaves underfoot and started flicking the leeches off his shoes. I looked down and found mine too were well covered with about 8 per shoe. They were soon flicked off.
For the first time on the walk I took a close look at the forest floor. It was unbelievable! It was covered in these nasty little creatures, as were the nearby bushes. The leeches were just hanging on the leaves just waiting for some unsuspecting soul to brush past. From then on we stopped every 10 mins to get rid of them and to re-spray ourselves.
When we got back to our car we did a quick body search on each other. We were fortunate, none had attached themselves to our skin. The guide was not so fortunate, in typical local style he wore shoes with no socks and he had 6 well bloated beasties hanging off his feet. In more than 20 years of jungle experience I have never ever seen such a multitude of leeches anywhere!
Glyn

Nepenthes edwardsiana

N.edwardsiana: A species endemic to the Kinabalu National Park in the altitude range of 1500m to 2700m. Found in moss forest or climbing bamboo. Lower pitchers are rarely seen, upper pitchers are quite spectacular and grow up to 35cm long. An upper pitcher is shown. We could not find the plant growing on Mt. Kinabalu. These photos were of a plant growing in the park's Mountain Garden. The pitchers were past their best.

Nepenthes lowii

N. lowii: Another species endemic to Borneo. Lowii grows at altitudes between 1650m and 2600m in thick moss forest. Upper pitchers grow up to 25cm in length. This photo was taken at 2000m on the Mt. Kinabalu summit trail. Last year whilst climbing Mt. Trusmadi Gina was frequently drenched by inadvertantly bumping into a mass of lowii pitchers like these, all full to the brim with rainwater, hanging at head height over the trail.

Nepenthes reinwardtiana

A climbing species which grows up to 10m or more sometimes completely enveloping a tree with a mass of pitchers cascading in the sunlight. It is easily distinguishable by the eyes inside the upper back of the pitcher wall which the majority have. There appear to be two variations of this plant. The most common has green pitchers whereas the less common has red pitchers.

Red form from Mt. Silam

Characteristic eye spots are visible in the throat.

Habitat shot of reinwardtiana with pitchers cascading in the sunlight

Glyn and Gina Constant

Well, once again our thanks to Glyn and Gina Constant for sharing their experiences and their photograghs of the Nepenthes in the Brunei - Sabah regions. Seeing the wild growing conditions and understanding habitat requirements will help us all to do a better job with our hobby plants - but without the leech experience! If you have a photographic experience which you would like to share with everyone, contact us. All we need is a copy of the photos (which can be returned) and a written or email account of the trip. We can do the rest. We appreciate your comments, corrections and questions on the material presented. bickell@idirect.com Al Bickell

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