Stories by Tan Cheng Li
Tuesday March 17, 2009
Exotic and enigmatic, the pitcher plant is a deadly beauty that has been mesmerising enthusiasts for centuries.
IMAGINE a plant whose leaves can grow into elongated cups complete with lids; cups that ooze sweet nectar to draw in insects which are then feasted upon by the plant. That is the carnivorous pitcher plant, or Nepenthes, for you.
This enigmatic plant, with its bizarre characteristics and wide-ranging colours and shapes, has besotted people ever since a species in Madagascar first caught the attention of Europeans in 1658.
Nepenthes enthusiast Mohd Fauzi Abu Bakar started growing the carnivorous plant in 2002 and has since turned his hobby into an income-generator.
Over the following centuries, European collectors scoured the tropics in search of the plant that is the epitome of exotica and eventually, succeeded in growing them in greenhouses.
Fast forward to present day and the fervour for nepenthes has waned not one bit.
One ardent fan is Mohd Fauzi Abu Bakar, who has amassed 58 species and over 40 hybrids in his small nursery in Selangor. His collection includes species which are not commercially available and are owned only by collectors. He has 30 of the 38 Malaysian species, as well as Thai, Australian and Papua New Guinea endemics.
At his nursery in Lembah Jaya Selatan, Ampang, pots of nepenthes crowd every square inch. Visitors have to thread carefully along a narrow pathway to avoid stepping on the many prized pots or bumping into those hanging overhead.
Fauzi’s eyes glint with delight when he talks about nepenthes. “It is a unique plant, with leaves that grow into a pitcher. There are so many variants and each species has its own characteristics. Some have fangs,” he says, referring to protrusions beneath the lid of the N. bicalcarata.
“Some have eye spots inside the pitcher. One species, the albomarginata, has different-coloured pitchers depending on where it grows. The one in Penang Hill has red pitchers, while those in Bako (Sarawak) are green and purple. And the pitchers ... you’ll be amazed at how big they can grow to ... some to overhalf a metre. The biggest Nepenthes rajah found apparently could hold 3 litres of water,” gushes Fauzi.
A chance purchase of a nepenthes from a plant nursery in 2002 was what got the bank manager-turned-horticulturist started on the hobby. That first plant died and from then on, growing nepenthes became a personal challenge.
“I kept buying new plants to try and grow them. But most did not survive,” says the forestry degree-holder.
His luck changed when he chanced upon Malesiana Tropicals at an agriculture show. The company sells artificially propagated nepenthes that have been acclimatised to nursery conditions, and so are suitable for home-growers.
Fauzi bought over 100 plants from Malesiana and even visited its nursery in Kuching, Sarawak, to learn all about planting nepenthes. By 2004, he had cultivated enough pots of nepenthes to sell at a weekend market. Two years later, he accepted the voluntary separation scheme offered by his banking institution and delved into his hobby full-time.
Nepenthes buyers
Taking part in floral shows and Internet sales have seen Fauzi’s business grow. But he also draws satisfaction from introducing the plant to the uninitiated. “Many people don’t know that this plant is found in our country and is our heritage. Once, during a floral show, an elderly lady was so fascinated with the plant that she cried. She said she had never seen it before.”
His clientele is divided equally between locals and foreigners, the latter coming mostly from Indonesia, Singapore, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
Fauzi says the plants are exported together with Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (Cites) permits and phyto-sanitary permits from the Agriculture Department.
His best-sellers are N. bicalcarata and N. ampullaria because of their unique features and wide variety. The N. ampullaria, for instance, has more than 20 variants, each a different colour.
In the wild, nepenthes propagate through pollination of the female and male plants. That’s difficult to achieve in a nursery as it requires both plants to flower simultaneously. Growing the plants from seeds also takes time. Hence, Fauzi finds it easier to propagate the plants through stem cuttings of tissue-cultured plants which he has bought from breeders. Lacking a laboratory, he does not do tissue culture himself.
Most of his initial plants came from Malesiana Tropicals but he now sources for them from Borneo Exotics (based in Sri Lanka), Exotica Plants (Australia), and companies in Germany, United States, India and Thailand.
Nepenthes lovers now have the benefit of Fauzi’s knowledge whereas he himself had to start from scratch.
“When I started out, the knowledge was basically in temperate countries. So how they cultivate is different,” says Fauzi. “It was from trial and error that I learnt the best growing media, light conditions and watering regime. I drove all over the country to buy nepenthes, talk with other enthusiasts, and visit any site where nepenthes grow to see the environment which they thrive in.”
Growing nepenthes is not all that difficult, Fauzi assures. “Different species will require different treatment but what they all need is humidity. How often you should water them depends on the growing media. If you grow them in porous material, you should water them daily. They also need a fair bit of sun, otherwise they will not pitcher.”
Because of the changed environment, the sizes of the leaves and pitchers of cultured nepenthes differ from wild ones. Highland species are usually stunted if grown in the lowlands.
Fauzi’s collection has expanded through exchanges with other enthusiasts. He counts, among his most prized possession, his single N. macrophylla plant, which grows only in Mount Trus Madi in Sabah and which he bought for RM500 from Borneo Exotics. “I must check it daily as it’s a highland species which I’m growing in the lowlands.”
His other treasured species are the endemics and newly discovered ones, such as N. faizalina (endemic to Mulu park in Sarawak), N. platychila (known only from Hose Mountain, Sarawak), N. neoguineensis (a Papua New Guinea endemic), N. Phillipinensis and N. mindanaoensis (both from southern Philippines) and N. maxima (Sulawesi). He also grows species of the North American pitcher plant, Sarracenia.
Collection threat
Despite the availability of artificially propagated nepenthes, collection from the wild persists. Nepenthes are protected only in Sabah and Sarawak, and not in Peninsular Malaysia.
“I’ve seen people with a gunny sack of nepenthes at Genting Highlands,” says Fauzi, shaking his head in disbelief. “Some places used to have a lot of nepenthes but not anymore,” he says, citing Mersing, which is known for the N. rafflesiana that is found just by the roadside. “The N. albomarginata Penang grows on the roadside in Penang Hill, and so is widely collected by visitors.”
The casual nepenthes grower, Fauzi believes, might initially pick from the wild but would eventually learn that such plants seldom survive. It would be better to buy propagated plants. To get wild N. gracillima, for instance, one would have to scale Gunung Tahan, the only place where it grows. Fauzi is not about to do that – he finds it easier to buy cultured plants.
But to begin artificial propagation, he says one would have to start with wild plants or seeds. He says this could be done “as long as you have good conscience, know what you are doing, and you just want to multiply the plant.”
Genuine nepenthes enthusiasts, he adds, pose no threat as they only take cuttings. He says casual collectors, on the other hand, are known to dig up the entire plant, thereby disturbing its roots and killing it.
Fauzi’s nursery, small though it may be, is a sort of refuge for nepenthes which are threatened by illegal collection and habitat loss. He believes that growing nepenthes in nurseries contributes to survival of the species for if left in the wild, they may be lost to forest fires or cultivation.
“In Bau, Sarawak, I once saw lots of pitcher plants but on my next visit, they had been wiped out by fires that were lit to clear the land. The ampullaria is a species that is difficult to find in Selangor but it can be found in Rawang (Selangor). But that place has been cleared for a road.”
Fauzi also sees his effort as plant conservation work. “I’m multiplying the plants so that people can see them and grow them anywhere. So they need not get them from the wild.”
Now that he has met the challenge of growing the plant, what is his next target? He replies: “I hope my place can be a place of education for people to visit and learn about nepenthes, like a sort of nepenthes centre.”
To find out more go to www.dapat.net/4zeplant. -- source The Star.
Mrs Lee
Submitted on 2009/04/08 at 4:39pm
Great job Mohd Fauzi. Hope there are more people like you who appreciate and love god’s creation.
Just bought one nepenthes ampullaria. Feeding
it with mosquitoes everyday.
Great job Mohd Fauzi. Hope there are more people like you who appreciate and love god's creation. Just bought one nepenthes ampullaria. Feeding it with mosquitoes everyday.
py ando
Submitted on 2009/04/26 at 3:52am
purchased our pitcher plant five years ago “Pitcher John Mitcher Litcher”. He sits above our kitchen sink & peeks out our window that provides daily indirect sunlight. My grandson was fasinated & intrigued w/carnivour plants so we began w/Mr. Pitcher who’s grown into quite a speciman & watches over our kitchen area. We do provide him with live insects when possible. Our pitcher has long slender leaves w/good proportioned pitchers & thrives. Enjoyed your article & look forward to more.
thank you
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