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Nepenthes bicalcarata
A large tropical pitcher plant from Borneo that climbs as a vine into the forest canopy and is famous for its ant partnership. It is grown as a warm, humid greenhouse or terrarium plant in large pots.
Nepenthes bicalcarata (; from Latin for "two-spurred"), also known as the fanged pitcher-plant, is a tropical pitcher plant which is endemic to Borneo. It is a vine up to 40 m (130 ft) length. It is a myrmecophyte noted for its mutualistic association with a species of ant, Camponotus schmitzi. As an ant-fed plant it lacks many of the features that characterise the carnivorous syndrome in Nepenthes, including viscoelastic and highly acidic pitcher fluid, the waxy zone of the pitcher interior, and possibly even functional digestive enzymes.
Nepenthes bicalcarata may be cultivated in a similar manner to other members of the genus, though it requires relatively hot and humid conditions. It needs large pots to do well, and temporary halts in growth are often due to becoming root-bound. Re-potting to a larger pot will often result in a rapid size increase. Under satisfactory conditions, this plant will grow quite fast for a Nepenthes, reaching a large size relatively rapidly.
Despite naturally occurring in peat swamp forests, N. bicalcarata has been successfully grown in a completely inorganic substrate consisting of one part each of Seramis clay perls, lava gravel, and Lecaton expanded clay perls.
Nepenthes bicalcarata is endemic to Borneo. It is most common in the peat swamp forests of the western coast of the island, which stretch across Sarawak, Sabah, Kalimantan, and Brunei. There it often grows in the shade of the ubiquitous dipterocarp Shorea albida. Nepenthes bicalcarata also occurs in kerangas forest and has even been recorded from white sand heath forests in Sarawak and East Kalimantan. The species is often sympatric with N. ampullaria in these habitats.
Nepenthes abalata · Nepenthes abgracilis · Nepenthes adnata · Nepenthes aenigma · Nepenthes alata · Nepenthes alba · Nepenthes albomarginata · Nepenthes alfredoi · Nepenthes alzapan · Flask-Shaped Pitcher-Plant · Nepenthes andamana · Nepenthes angasanensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Nepenthes bicalcarata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
