Albany Pitcher Carnivorous Plant (Cephalotus Follicularis)
This plant is commonly called the Albany Pitcher Plant as it is
native to the west side of Australia, growing near a town called Albany.
This town has a maximum summer temperature of 90 degrees and minimum
water temperature of 5 degrees.
This plant grows near slow flowing creeks and can be found in cattle
farms, with pitchers being trampled on regularly; much of the area also
undergoes selective burning every few years. Even with all these hazards
to its existence, the Cephalotus seems to continue to survive,
nonetheless its numbers are slowly decreasing year by year.
Although this plant is often called a pitcher plant, this generalisation is hardly accurate, as can be seen from the photograph
and when it is compared to Sarracenia. This ingeneous plant has
developed a method to trap both crawling and flying insects, using both
light and slippery surfaces; and yet its pitchers are no bigger than 5
centimeters. Under ideal conditions pitchers may grow up to 10
centimeters with the help of artificial light and high humidity, but
they seldom reach this size in the wild.
Care
Growing the plant by seed has been met with varied success. Other
methods, such as leaf and root cuttings, have been very successful. This
can be planted in peat moss, sprayed with a fungicide, covered with a
plastic bag and left for at least eight weeks, then the plastic should
be removed. After a couple of months new shoots should begin to appear.
Spray again with a fungicide, then leave in a protected position. These
cuttings can be potted up after six months, by which time the plant
should have four pitchers as well as non-carnivorous leaves.
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