Re: Nepenthes soils
ALASTAIR ROBINSON (100611.1627@CompuServe.COM)
01 Nov 96 08:44:58 EST
At least in the Malaysian Peninsular, it is only the mountain species
that are really ever found in peaty soil, however they do also grow in
most anything else. On Gunung Ulu Kali for example plants are found all
over the exposed, granitic rockfaces wherever there is a foothold
available, either in small fissures, or where moss grows heavily enough
to provide a foothold on otherwise 'smooth' rockfaces. The soils on
this mountain range from serpentine in places, to lateritic as well as
peaty in others, and Nepenthes are found in all with fairly even
distribution. Note that where they occur in areas where peat is
abundant, the plants are lankier and a little less robust than their
counterparts.
While lowland species can and do grow in peat, they are not so
often
found growing in it simply because it is not an abundant substrate in
the lowlands, even it wet areas. What most people tend to notice is
that Nepenthes appear most commonly on disturbed ground, or similarly,
in secondary forests though to a lesser degree, whereas finding
Nepenthes in the dense, primary rainforest is quite unusual (eg. Taman
Negara, the largest of peninsular Malaysia's reserves, is void of any
lowland species within its undeveloped confines). What the first two
habitats share in common is that the soil has often been severely
leached and reduced from a rich humus to its coarser constituents -
sand/grit etc. which aren't so easily washed away. Though this says
little about peat (sidetracked as always), it does demonstrate the
aversion of this genus to nutrient rich soils.
Considering the way in which cultivated Nepenthes tend to grow
more
slowly in peat than in more open compost, it would probably be wiser to
keep its use to a minimum unless it is required for a specific reason -
it's a lot safer for seedlings which are at risk from drying, for
example, and provides a good anchor for their miniscule root systems.