Nepenthes

The genus Nepenthes (Nepenthes, English: Tropical pitcher plant), which is included in the familia monotipik, consisting of 130 species and hybrids do not include natural and artificial. This genus is a carnivorous plant in the Old World tropics, now includes the state of Indonesia, the People's Republic of southern China, Indochina, Malaysia, the Philippines, Madagascar west, Seychelles, New Caledonia, India, Sri Lanka, and Australia. Habitat with the largest species is on the island of Borneo and Sumatra.

This plant can reach a height of 15-20 m by climbing other plants, although there are some species that are not climbing. At the ends of leaf tendrils are modified to form a pocket, which is a tool trap used to eat the prey (eg insects, leeches, frogs child) which entered into.

In general, Nepenthes has three kinds of bags, the bag top, bottom bags, and bags rosette. Pockets above are pockets of mature plants, usually funnel-shaped or cylindrical, do not have wings, does not have an attractive color, part tendrils rear-facing and can be wrapped around the branches of other plants, pockets on more often to catch animals that fly like mosquitoes or flies, bags this type rarely even found in some species, such as N. ampullaria. Bag bottom is a bag that is generated on the part of young plants usually tergelatak on the ground, has two wings that serve as a tool for soil insects like ants to climb up the mouth of the bag and finally plunged into liquid berenzim inside, while pouch rosette, have a shape the same as under the bag, but the bag rosette grows on the leaf rosette, examples of species that have this type of bag is ampullaria N. and N. gracilis. Some plants are sometimes issued a middle bag shaped like a mix bag bottom and top bag.

This plant has a very broad dissemination of the coast to the highlands, for this Nepenthes are divided into two types, namely the type of highland and lowland types, although most species grow in the highlands. Species recorded grows at highest altitudes is N. lamii that is at an altitude of 3,520 m.

Most species grow in places with high humidity and light with a medium to high level. Some species such as N. ampullaria grow in the shade with not too much light, while N. mirabilis grows place open with abundant light. Soil place to grow Nepenthes are usually poor in nutrients and acid. Some species grow in places that are highly toxic to other plants such as N. rajah growing on soils with heavy metals and N. albomarginata that grow on the sandy beach in the zones affected by the spray of the sea, some species grow as epiphytes growing N. inermis without contact with the ground.