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Heliamphora chimantensis
The Chimantá massif is not a single table mountain but a cluster of some ten plateaus separated by deep gorges. Heliamphora chimantensis was found there only in 2001 and described a year later — that a pitcher plant thirty centimetres tall could go unnoticed so long says most about how little of this landscape has ever been walked. It is also the only large species of the genus on this massif, and so, on the Chimantá plateaus, a plant nobody overlooks.
Identification
A substantial rosette of erect pitchers 20 to 35 cm long and 3.5 to 5 cm wide in the upper part. The pitcher is infundibular below, slightly bellied about halfway and cylindrical to slightly infundibular above that. The colouring is a striking combination: the pitcher itself stays wholly green while the nectar spoon is deep red, standing over each leaf like a dark dot from a distance. That spoon is spoon- to helmet-shaped, 2 to 2.5 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide, with two laterally compressed lobes that nearly meet at the front; the inner surface carries irregular patches of glands up to 5 mm across. The scape is 60 to 65 cm long and bears three to five flowers on pedicels of 5 to 13 cm. The tepals are lanceolate, 4.5 to 5.5 cm long and 1.2 to 1.7 cm wide, white to whitish pink.
Similar species
The decisive characters are floral. This species has about twenty stamens, where the species of the northern Gran Sabana have ten to fifteen; its anthers are also short, about 5 mm, against 7 to 9 mm in the two relatives with a comparable stamen count, Heliamphora tatei and Heliamphora neblinae. Those two grow hundreds of kilometres further west. On the Chimantá massif itself confusion is mainly possible with Heliamphora pulchella, but that is much smaller, has a densely hairy pitcher interior and a spoon attached broadly to the pitcher. Without flowers the colour combination serves: green pitcher, red spoon.
The trap and how it works
A pitfall in which the plant largely contracts out the digestion. Few or no digestive enzymes are produced; bacteria in the pitcher fluid break the prey down and the plant absorbs what is released. The red nectar spoon is both lure and landing place: it secretes nectar directly above the pitcher opening. Below lie a smooth zone and a zone of downward-pointing hairs, so an insect that loses its footing does not climb back out. The large gland patches on the inner face of the spoon are unusually conspicuous in this species. Given the size of the pitcher this is a trap holding a considerable volume of fluid; a drainage opening in the wall stops it overflowing and losing its catch in the near-daily rain. Prey consists mainly of ants and other small, walking insects.
Habitat and ecology
The summit plateaus of the massif (R4), and within them chiefly the flat valleys and hollows where peat accumulates and water stands (W6). The plants grow among a low cover of grasses, bromeliads, Xyris and Stegolepis, forming mats that can reach several metres across. The substrate is an acid, waterlogged layer of peat on sandstone, extremely poor in nitrogen and phosphorus and constantly leached by rain. At this elevation the climate is cool and all but permanently wet, with cloud sitting on the plateau much of the day.
Distribution and elevation
Endemic to the Chimantá massif in Bolívar state, Venezuela, with sites on its central-eastern part including Apacará-tepui, Chimantá-tepui and Toronó-tepui. Recorded elevations lie between about 1900 and 2100 m. The species has not been found off the massif. That fits the pattern of the whole genus: for a bog plant the plateaus of the Guiana Shield are as far apart as islands at sea, and each massif therefore has species of its own.
- Recorded (one-degree cells)
Forms and variation
No varieties or subspecies have been described within the species. The variation that catches the eye is the depth of colour in the nectar spoon and the degree to which older pitchers turn red-brown; this differs from site to site with exposure and carries no taxonomic name. No natural hybrids of this species have been formally described, although a second species of the genus grows on the massif and hybridisation within Heliamphora is well documented on other mountains. Cultivars are left aside here: what circulates in cultivation under fancy names says nothing about the wild plants.
Where and when to see it
The massif is reachable only by helicopter or a long trek and lies within Canaima National Park; in practice a visit means a permit and a guide. Once on top, do not search the bare sandstone ridges but the flat, wet valleys: that is where the mats are, often continuous over large areas. The quickest cue at a distance is the contrast between leaf and spoon — a green field with red dots above it. The flowering period is not established in the literature; plants in flower are reported on the plateaus throughout the year.
Conservation status
Not assessed for the IUCN Red List, and listed in no CITES appendix. What is certain is that the species is confined to a single massif, which makes it vulnerable by definition to whatever befalls that massif. Against that, the habitat lies within a national park and World Heritage site, the plateaus cannot be entered without a permit, and the known populations are large — mats metres across are not the sign of a failing species. Collection for trade is the risk usually named for the genus, but cultivated plants now come almost entirely from seed and tissue culture. The lack of an assessment here mainly reflects how recent and how inaccessible the species is.
Scientific name
Heliamphora chimantensis | Wistuba, Carow & Harbarth, 2002
Described by Andreas Wistuba, Bernd Carow and Ulrike Harbarth in 2002, in Carnivorous Plant Newsletter 31(3): 78–82. The type area lies on the Chimantá massif in south-eastern Venezuela, with records from the tepuis Apacará and Chimantá. The species name chimantensis refers directly to the Chimantá massif, where the species is endemic.
World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), via Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.