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Well according to wikipedia N. ampullaria is a vegetation eater: N. ampullaria has largely moved away from carnivory and acquires a substantial portion of its nutrients from digesting leaf matter that falls to the forest floor. It is thus partially detritivorous.

The species has developed several unique traits as a consequence of its adaptation to trapping leaf litter:

* It is the only species in the genus to lack "lunate" cells in its pitchers.[6] These are modified stomatal guard cells which, it is thought, deny prey a foothold in the pitcher.[5]
* The pitcher lid is atypical, being very small and reflexed, such that leaf litter is allowed to fall directly into the pitcher.[4]
* Nectar glands, which play an important role in prey capture, are very rare and in some cases completely absent from the pitcher lid.[4]
* The marginal glands of the peristome are greatly reduced compared to those of other species.[4]
* In terrestrial pitchers, the glandular region extends almost to the peristome, such that there is little or no conductive waxy zone.[3][7][8][9] The waxy zone functions by causing prey to slip and fall into the digestive fluid.[4]
* The plant's architecture, consisting of subsurface runners and offshoots, is unusual for the genus. The species often forms a "carpet" of pitchers covering the soil. This serves to maximise the area over which falling debris may be intercepted.[4]
* The pitchers of N. ampullaria are relatively long-lived, as the species relies on a slow accumulation of nutrients over time.[4]
* It is thought that infaunal organisms, such as mosquito larvae, facilitate breakdown of leaf litter and aid in the transfer of nitrogen from it to the plant by means of the excretion of ammonium ions. Bacterial breakdown of leaf matter is also known to produce ammonium ions.[4]

It has been shown that foliar stable nitrogen isotope (15N) abundance in N. ampullaria plants growing under forest canopy (litterfall present) is significantly lower than in plants without access to litterfall. Conversely, total nitrogen concentrations are higher in these plants compared to those growing in open sites with no litterfall. It has been estimated that N. ampullaria plants growing under forest canopy derive 35.7% (±0.1%) of their foliar nitrogen from leaf litter.[10]
 
So.. are you saying it should be called an herbivorous plant?
 
They have it classified protocarnivorous.. I just thought this was all unusual info and wanted thoughts etc.. anyone have dead leaves to give their amp?
 
I think Ampullaria is just trying to catch whatever it can.
 
Detritivorous. Protocarnivorous. My head is spinning! Never heard these words before.

If it eats plants and bugs it's also omnivorous right?
 
Detritivorous. Protocarnivorous. My head is spinning! Never heard these words before.

If it eats plants and bugs it's also omnivorous right?

not really..I dont think a plant is really capable of being omnivorous..
omnivorous means "eating both plants and animals"..but its more than that..
I think it also means "able to eat plants and animals, and pretty much anything that it can find that is edible"..IMO, the term omnivorous should really apply only to animals, since plants cant really seek out "any food they want".

There arent a lot of omnivorous animals..humans, raccoons, bears, pigs..and a few more.

Scot
 
But again, according to wiki it lacks a lot of necessities to capture insects such as nectar glands, and it's behavior is to make lots of ground pitchers. Again, it's wiki, but it makes sense to me..
 
I had read about this too from a few sources. Makes me want to try feeding mine with other plant matter, but I wouldn't know what to try. Has anyone analyzed nutrient uptake or what exactly can or can't get broken down by the pitchers?
 
  • #11
I toss junk in my amp pitchers all the time. Mostly dead spider plant leaves.
~Joe
 
  • #12
Thanks, I did read through a few of the references that were used for the page. I guess I was looking for more specific info. I'm curious as to what "leaf litter" would fall into their traps in the wild.

Also has anyone tried dropping any plant matter into their amp pitchers to see if it gets broken down and possibly used?
 
  • #13
Okay, someone needs to feed this nep another baby nep. Then it would be carnivorous, protocarnivorous, detrivorous, omnivorous, herbivorous, and cannibalistic!
 
  • #15
Joe, when you dump vegetation do you notice and growth changes? Or when you began did you notice a change?
 
  • #16
I found a small fly inside a pitcher on my N. ampullaria. To me, that at least proves protocarnivory :)

Detritivorous does makes sense too - the lids are pulled all the way back (180*), most of the pitchers are actually lowers that rest on the forest floor, so it probably does catch dead leaves and whatever else falls inside
 
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