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S. Oreophila - Inefficient?

Noticed something in Nick Romanowski's Gardening with Carnivores that seemed interesting - he says that "In the wild, [S. oreophila] is said to be the most inefficient insect catcher of all the southern species."

Thought this was a little confusing... Is oreophila inefficient in cultivation as well?  I don't grow any myself, so what's everyone else's experience?  If it is, any ideas why?  It would seem strange if a plant so close to S. flava would somehow be less attractive to insects, but who knows?

As a possible follow-up, what species or hybrids do you find to be most attractive to insects?  I've heard leucophylla or flava, but it should be interesting to hear other people's experience.

Mike
 
I don't pay too close attention, but it at least in my collection, leuco and hybrids with leuco in them seem to catch the most insects, or at least fill up the fastest. I can't recall ever seeing my oreophilas getting many bugs in them. I'll pay closer attention this year.
 
Hi Mike. I always thought that S. purpurea and some hybrids of it were the most inefficient. I've only ever seen a few bugs in my purpurea. In my experience, S. leucophyllas and S. 'Judith Hindle' always fill up first. I'll be able to tell you about S. oreo. later this season since I just received my first one.


-buckeye
 
thats a lie! (that they dont catch much food)
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my oreophylla pitchers were filled to the top this winter, with earwigs!
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unfortunately when i cut one of the pitchers off, it was very heavy with earwigs, and i dropped it... at least 50 live un digested earwigs came out! they must have been living on other, dead, earwigs.
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Off the top of my head, I believe Schnell states that they should be kept further away from other plants, because of the competition for insects.
 
Huh. My experience show that leucos and x 'Judith Hindle' are really attractive to bugs, flava a little less so, alata and minor caught some (but they were smaller, so they may impact the data) and pupurea just a dud. I will have my first summer with a few more types this year. Those are the only ones I've grown outside to see any comparrison.
 
Theres a few reasons why this may be true , most of S. oreophila color is green , not very attracting to bugs that like red things such as a vft's trap or a flower , also , S. oreophila may not contain as much of the aroma that attracts insects as other plants , i don't knwo for sure yet but i'm just making a hypothesis and also the plant is endangered and not many people study it too much so there maybe a little misconception here . Otherwise , that quote may have a lil typo in it .
 
Interesting to hear everyone's opinions..... have to agree that the Judith Hindle is apparently pretty attractive, even the pitcher or two that opened in December are filled.

Actually, the color was something I hadn't really considered. I believe someone theorized a while back that leucos fill up so fast because the tall white tops just look a lot like flowers to flying insects, so it would seem to follow that greener species might be somewhat less attractive.

Given the difference in experience from people like Spectabilis, though, maybe the statement that oreos are "inefficient" is simply inaccurate.

Lovely story about the earwigs, by the way, heheh....

Mike
 
S. oreophila is in peak condition very early in the year and perhaps there are less insects around in spring rather than summer/autumn.

Romanowski also says that S. purpurea is a poor catcher, but mine in the garden fills up very quickly, mostly with flies.
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Alvin Meister @ Mar. 03 2004,07:37)]S. oreophila is in peak condition very early in the year and perhaps there are less insects around in spring rather than summer/autumn.

Romanowski also says that S. purpurea is a poor catcher, but mine in the garden fills up very quickly, mostly with flies.
I find that the newer pitchers on my S.purpurea tend to catch more than the old ones. The new ones seem to be quite attractive to wasps in particular. I think its interesting that so many books comment on how ineffective a bug catcher it is. I just dont see this in my mature plant stood outside in Northern England.

S.pupurea never catching anything seems to be another cp myth.

MOG
 
  • #11
Agreed Mogster. All my plants do well living outdoors, and catch insects in abundance. S. oreophila with its shorter growing season, catches like crazy in late spring, and gets more than its share of food. My leucos beat the field however, with my alata's and flavas a tight second. The rest of the plants definitely get their share, including my rubra complex (all 5), and the purps as well. As long as they eat, it doesn't matter to me who eats the most.
 
  • #12
yet another comment!
My Oreo was huge last year and I'd say it did medium-well in the capture department. My Leuco was collapsing due to overload however. there is certainly no shortage of house flies or wasps where I live (on a farm) so I was surprised that Oreo was such a lame contender. Though I haven't seen any earwigs around! My Purp is the lamest of the bunch, or maybe the Parrot - which isn't really in the same category anyways. Anyways those are my thoughts!
MAtt
 
  • #13
Hi there,

How do you measure efficiency in catching insects?
 
  • #15
My first oreophylla pitcher opened 2 days ago...


The pitcher is now 1/3 the way full
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Time to get some cotton swabs!
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  • #16
Alvin,

1) what if different plants trap different types of insects and it just so happen that the right type of insects are available for that type of pitcher plant?

2)to determine efficiency. you not only have to measure the size of the catch, but also the resources the plant has used in producing the traps. Have you done that?
 
  • #17
In answer to question (2), I started the topic implying, as Alvin said, that efficient means how full are the traps, i.e., how many insects are caught given the pitcher size. Should've been more explicit......

..... Although that does bring up a good point - leucophylla, for instance, may catch the most insects, but generally puts up fewer pitchers than other species.... suppose it's somewhat difficult to measure the "resources" used in developing traps.

As for (1) - guess that depends on regional variations. Like I don't think I've ever even seen an earwig here in San Francisco, but you can probably guess there are lots of flies.

Mike
 
  • #18
Maybe if you test to see how the pitchers look under UV light you can have a better idea as to what insects they attract.

I'm looking at the compromise between capturing more insects and the surface area for photosynthesis. Lets say you have a flat leaf versus the same leaf folded into a cone. With the sun overhead, the cone shaped leaf would have less surface area exposed to the sun but would have a greater chance of capturing insects.

I think the sarras "know this" during winter when insects are less abundent, some create winter leafs which are blade shape instead of conical shaped like the summer leafs (the inside of the cone is less exposed to the sun). For the same resources spent, the plant probably gets a higher pay-off from creating another winter leaf.
 
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