Thoughts on Growing Nepenthes campanulata

Nepenthes campanulata in cultivation

Nepenthes campanulata is my favorite Nepenthes, and, thanks to Ryan Georgia, I will shortly own one. Previously, I had seen Francois' post on the species, describing it as difficult in cultivation. Notably, he remarks that most plants he saw in cultivation would put out pitchers a bit larger than 2 inches, while, in the wild, the plant would regularly put out pitchers around 4 inches, and up to nearly 5 inches.

Francois' picture of N. campanulata in the wild

I decided to do some research into the conditions N. campanulata experiences in the wild to see if there was something missing from the usual live sphagnum medium. I think that there might be, limestone. In the wild, N. campanulata grows on limestone escarpments (a steep slope or long cliff that occurs from faulting and resulting erosion and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations) (see photo above).

Calcite Limestone

Limestone, as the State of Missouri helpfully explains, is soluble in water. Approximately a pinhead's worth of stone will dissolve, albeit slowly, in a gallon of pure water. Solubility increases with the acidity of water. As a consequence, the roots of N. campanulata, which often touch the limestone escarpment, are continuously exposed to a small amount of the calcium-bearing carbonate minerals calcite and dolomite (as well as other dissolved minerals in the limestone). These are not typically minerals released by sphagnum or through most fertilizers (though Maxsea may provide some of the same minerals). As a consequence, I am intending on getting a little bit of limestone to add to my N. campanulata pot to see if that will help the plant produce bigger pitchers.

Switching gears a little bit, Francois mentions that N. campanulata is said to have "dry type" pitchers, meaning instead of holding lots of water, they have a large waxy zone, which allows the pitcher to function even when water is lacking. Given this, he was surprised that N. campanulata seemed to differ from other "dry type" pitchered plants in that it was more effective at catching flying insects than crawling ones. After seeing the above video, I'm less surprised than I was before (when I considered that the environment in which N. campanulata grows seems more inclined to host flying than crawling insects).

Nepenthes campanulata in cultivation

Overall, I would not be surprised to find that N. campanulata grows well in my typical lowland conditions - high humidity and warm(ish). I am very excited to obtain this plant and start growing it.