This species have the larger inflorescences regarding size and number of flowers.
It has been found growing in carton nest gardens in Madre de Dios, Peru (Davidson, 1988) and it has been noticed that this species can also survive outside ant gardens .
Davidson (1988) showed that the seeds of this species are dispersed by ants, which are
attracted by a oily compound present in the seeds.
This species is related to N. myrmecophila with which it shares the free sepals and multiflowered inflorescence but it differs by having green inner leaves (sometimes red if grows in strong sun light) , ligulate foliar blades, compound inflorescence, a type III stigma (type I in N myrmecophila ) . This species tends to form big clumps, larger than those of N. myrmecophila.
This species grows very well in cultivation, potted in organic soil containing vermiculite and kept the rosette tank full of water.
Each mature rosette can produce two to three new rosettes and the plant could become an unmanageable mass if the groups of shoots are not separated from the mother plant from time to time.
There is an illustration in several treatments that was treated as N. eleutheropetala var. eleuthropetala but the illustration, included here as fig. 15, represents N. eleutheropetala var. bicolor because the foliar blades are triangular instead of ligulate.
In Mee's (1988) book (p173) is illustrated what is considered here a red form of N. eleutheropetala var. eleutheropetala, seen in cultivation with the cultivar name of 'Rubra'.
It can be seen that, depending of the growth conditions, this species can develop different colorations on the leaves.
Further floral information and population studies will give some insight about the true identity of this red form.
The description was made from the bibliography, the type collection and other herbarium specimens, and a living plant in cultivation at SEL, originally from Iquitos, Peru.
Also, an illustration of the flowers is included, showing something very bizarre found in the flowers of the living plant.
The stamens form an apical, elongated, glandulose (adaxially) structure.
In order to elucidate the origin of this structure and the possible function, ontogenetic analyses will be necessary. —SeeRamirez 1991
