Heliamphora ciliata

No photograph of this species under a Creative Commons licence or in the public domain is in the guide yet.

Identification

A rosette of erect pitchers about 20 cm tall, which over the years form closed clumps up to some 35 cm across. Each pitcher is a single leaf grown shut into a funnel with a seam down the front. Two characters make identification easy here. The first is the tufts of hairs that gave the species its name: on the back of the nectar spoon and in a line along the back of the pitcher midrib stand plumes of hairs, far more conspicuous than in most of its relatives. The second is the drainage. Where most species of the genus have a round pore through the pitcher wall, that is absent here; instead there is a narrow slit at the front. Inside, the pitcher carries two different types of hair, which gives the whole trap a woolly look. In bright light the colour turns red quickly. Measurements of the scape and floral parts are not established in accessible literature.

Similar species

The species to reckon with in the same landscape is Heliamphora heterodoxa, which also grows in the Gran Sabana and at a distance amounts to the same thing: a green to reddening funnel in wet grassland. The difference lies in the details that explain the name ciliata. Look at the back of the nectar spoon and at the pitcher midrib: if there are distinct tufts of hairs there, you have this species. Then look at the wall: if you find a round drainage pore it is not this species, because ciliata has a narrow slit at the front instead. Hairy pitchers also occur in Heliamphora pulchella and in Heliamphora minor var. pilosa, but those grow hundreds of kilometres away on table-mountain summits, not in upland grassland. Confusion with Sarracenia is ruled out geographically.

The trap and how it works

A pitfall trap that digests almost nothing by itself. The plant makes few or no digestive enzymes; bacteria in the pitcher fluid break the prey down, after which the plant takes up the released nitrogen and phosphorus. The nectar spoon on the back rim is the lure: nectar is secreted there, and an insect coming to it sits directly above the opening. The upper part of the inner wall is lined with downward-pointing hairs, so climbing back out fails; below that the wall is smooth. The drainage is unusual: instead of a round pore, a narrow slit at the front holds the fluid at its level. What exactly the tufts on the spoon and midrib do has not been established.

Habitat and ecology

Swampy meadows in hill country (W6) — not a table-mountain summit, which makes this species an outlier in its genus. The sites lie at around 900 m in open, permanently wet meadows on poor sandstone ground, where acid peat and bog moss gather in the wettest spots (W1). The plant grows there together with a species of Stegolepis, a genus of Rapateaceae characteristic of these poor, wet uplands; that combination is a good sign you are searching in the right place. The climate here is warmer and less permanently clouded than on the summits, but the ground stays wet year-round. As everywhere in this genus the substrate is extremely poor in nitrogen and phosphorus and rain continually washes away what little there is; a trap that converts insects is the way to bridge that shortfall.

Distribution and elevation

The species is endemic to Venezuela and known from a small number of swampy meadows in the uplands of the Gran Sabana, in the area north-east of the Aprada massif, at about 900 m. For this genus that is an exceptionally low position: almost all other species grow hundreds to well over two thousand metres higher, on table-mountain summits. A fine-grained distribution map cannot be made for this species: the international distribution databases hold no distribution region at all for Heliamphora ciliata, so what stands here rests entirely on the taxonomic literature. Precise sites are left out. The genus as a whole is confined to the Guiana Shield in Venezuela, western Guyana and the far north of Brazil.

Forms and variation

No varieties or subspecies have been described. The variation you see is one of colour rather than structure: plants in open, sunny spots colour red quickly and strongly, plants among taller grasses and sedges stay green. That difference is a response to light intensity. No natural hybrids are recorded for this species in accessible literature. That is not as self-evident as it sounds: because the species grows at an unusual elevation it barely comes into contact with its relatives, and that geographical and altitudinal separation is the usual reason crosses fail to appear in this genus.

Where and when to see it

Unlike most species in the genus, no helicopter or multi-day climb is needed here — the sites lie in the accessible hill country of the Gran Sabana. That is also this species' weak point, so be reticent about sharing locations. Search open, permanently wet meadows and use Stegolepis as your guide; where those rosettes stand, the substrate is right. Take a hand lens: the distinction from the other grassland relative here hangs on the tufts of hairs at the nectar spoon and midrib. Walk around the wettest spots rather than through them; the turf is thin and the tracks stay visible for a long time. Read colour as a signal of light exposure, not of season.

Conservation status

The species has not been assessed for the IUCN Red List and there is no CITES listing: Heliamphora appears in no appendix. What can be said weighs more heavily here than for the tepui species. The species is known from only a few swampy meadows, so the range is small. Unlike its relatives it does not enjoy the protection of inaccessibility: at 900 m in hill country the sites lie within reach of roads, grazing, savanna fires and collectors. That makes the absence of a formal assessment a clearer gap here than for a plant on a plateau at 2500 m. For the genus as a whole collection for trade is named as a risk, though cultivated material now comes almost entirely from seed and tissue culture. There is no established decline — simply nothing has been measured.

Scientific name

Heliamphora ciliata | Wistuba, Nerz & Fleischmann, 2009

Described by Andreas Wistuba, Joachim Nerz and Andreas Fleischmann in 2009, in Willdenowia 39(2): 273–283. The type area lies in a small number of swampy upland meadows in Venezuela's Gran Sabana, at around 900 metres elevation. The species name ciliata is Latin for "fringed with hairs" and refers to the fringed hairiness characteristic of this species.

World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), via Plants of the World Online (POWO), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.