Nepenthes - mostly rare - assorted portraits

[XYZ]

 

I'll let the plants do the talking. Mixture of plants in my own collections (mostly cool-growers) interspersed with a few cultivated by a very-talented colleague with whom I share greenhouse space with, Josh Brown of Predatory Plants. His plants are ID'd in the thread.

Courtesy Josh Brown

Courtesy Josh Brown

Courtesy Josh Brown

 

Enjoy,

Jay

[Palmarum]

A great group of plants wonderfully photographed. I wish the old Nepenthes I used to grow looked like those.

Ryan

[Jdiaz31089]

Wow. Excellent collection. 

[Gonzer]

Jeez Louise, the color spectrum and designs are beyond cool. How do you feed 'em Stoney? Truly living works of art.

[XYZ]

Thanks! Just very, very dilute Maxsea and CalMag every three weeks or so. No esoteric organic diets for my carnivorous plants. "Better living through chemistry."

[Palm Tree Jim]

Live art.....incredible pictures. 

[The Silent Seed]

Gorgeous - and a variegated one? WOW! That thing is insane! 

Do you propagate yours? Can these things be propagated from cuttings? I have a generic one that was given to me, and it's getting pretty long in places. 

[XYZ]

Yes, I propagate from both in-house seed and cuttings, particularly the named clones that are currently in commercial demand. It is interesting to note that carnivores and cacti+succulents are extremely popular among Millenials and Gen Z'ers, miniature orchids somewhat less so. IMO, rare nepenthes are very much the cutting edge collectors plant for that particular demographic in both the US and Asia.

J

[Missi]

Another plant I cannot keep alive.  

[XYZ]

The right ones for your climate are about as easy and rewarding a tropical plant as there are out there. The wrong ones? Notsomuch.

The tissue culture garbage sold my most non-specialist nurseries leave a lot of people with bad tastes in their mouths, since they have often been abused prior to sale.. These are very easy plants to grow if you don't have a black thumb. Only lowland origin species and hybrids should be attempted by novice FL growers; almost all of the cloud forest types will slowly die.

[The Silent Seed]

Stone,

Any pointers on starting a few cuttings of mine to play with?

The old leaves do not regrow pitchers, correct? 

If I continue to do well with this plant, I'd love to source a variegated one like yours. I'm in love with that plant! 

[XYZ]

Everyone has their secrets for improving strike rates, but easiest technique is to take min four node cuttings, cut lowest leaf back to stem, halve the length of the others, dip base in Clonex gel, then plce base of cutting about 1.5-2" deep in loose, clean sphagnum moss. If you have a mist bench, place there; if not, upright   in large ziplock bags. Bright shade, not too shady.

I sell those variegated alata on a regular basis. If interested PM me. Price fluctuates with seasonal demand and plant size.

J

[LJG]

Nice collection. Looks like a few from Borneo? Sure wish I could grow these outside. My greenhouse is full of plants right now. 

[XYZ]

Mostly Sumatran or that origin hybrids, followed by several Bornean and Phillipine origin species and hybrids. Not really great outdoor plants for much of the continental US. Several can handle the temperature swings, but suffer with long periods of low RH.

[LJG]

You said the plants are ID'ed in the thread. Where can I find this?

[XYZ]

I wrote that Josh Brown's plants were ID'd in the post .They are identified as his under images of each of those plants, a couple of which I also grow (but his are larger). From top to bottom, plant IDs:

Nepenthes alata variegata

N. alata variegata

Nepenthes x briggsiana 'Hortus Botanicus'

Nepenthes x briggsiana 'JS' x Trusmadiensis

Nepenthes lowii x (northiana x veitchii)

N. burbidgeae x veitchii

N. lowii x talangensis

N. densiflora x robcantleyi

N. jacquelinae

N. peltata

N. 'Singapore Garden Tech'

N. veitchii

N. jacquelinae x eymae

N. inermis

N. rigidifolia

Jay

 

[Kim]

Stunning colors and patterns. It was fun being introduced to these in Borneo. Some can thrive in Hawaii, but I don't know which. Any hints? I would grow them outdoors, of course, possibly mounted on trunks, if that is usual. Nothing too finicky, please -- absentee gardener. Sources? Thanks for the excellent photos.

[XYZ]

Hi, Kim.

Contrary to popular belief, the overwhelming majority of nepenthes are terrestrials or hemiepiphytes, not true epiphytes. Very old and massive colonies that ramble through canopies can lose their basal connection to soil and thrive as functional epiphytes in perhumid environments. They require very good light to pitcher well. When siting them, think more climbing aroid rather than birdsnest fern or small epiphytic bromeliad, i.e. place at the base of your mount tree, not wired to a trunk. Many excellent forms for Hawaii...generally anything showy with maxima or ventricosa in its parentage is a rewarding plant for novices. There are several nurseries that carry neps on the islands. Little birds tell me to beware of coconut scale infestations when making a purchase over there.

Good luck,

J

 

[Kim]

4 hours ago, stone jaguar said:

Hi, Kim.

Contrary to popular belief, the overwhelming majority of nepenthes are terrestrials or hemiepiphytes, not true epiphytes. Very old and massive colonies that ramble through canopies can lose their basal connection to soil and thrive as functional epiphytes in perhumid environments. They require very good light to pitcher well. When siting them, think more climbing aroid rather than birdsnest fern or small epiphytic bromeliad, i.e. place at the base of your mount tree, not wired to a trunk. Many excellent forms for Hawaii...generally anything showy with maxima or ventricosa in its parentage is a rewarding plant for novices. There are several nurseries that carry neps on the islands. Little birds tell me to beware of coconut scale infestations when making a purchase over there.

Good luck,

J

 

Excellent advice, thanks for your time and expertise! Kind of you to share.

[BS Man about Palms]

I think once my yard is finished...... well CLOSER to being finished, I want to have a go at these. 1.5 miles from coast in San Diego/Oceanside I think will help.

THANK YOU for the great pics!!

 

[Dypsisdean]

Jay - some theoretical questions please.

Suppose someone cultivated a super overabundance of these plants in a three acre garden of optimum lush forest environment. Would you think there would be any effect on the insect population?

Do these generally attract more day or night insects? Would plenty of insect food make for healthier plants? Are different species specific for different types of insects? Suppose I wished to target a small moth whose caterpillar is a problem for many tropicals here, including palms?

[XYZ]

Dean:

I had many, many dozens of immense nepenthes specimens representing >40 species populating in densely-planted garden in Guat and never noticed any visible impact on insect populations there, in spite of the presence of hundreds of aerial pitchers actively trapping all day, every day for 16 years.

The ecology of nepenthes is so fascinating, complex and diverse that any discussion of even the basics would run to a very lengthy magazine article. Execsum is that the basal (terrestrial/rosette) pitchers of most species are generalists that randomly trap "forest floor plankton" like cockroaches, crickets, woodlice and other arthropods. The upper (aerial) pitchers tend to be a bit more specialized, with some taxa targeting very specific families (e.g. wasps and nasutiform termites). I am not aware of any that are particularly efficient moth traps.

This is an aerial pitcher of Nepenthes platychila, a rare endemic of the Hose Mountain cloud forests of Sarawak, growing in my old garden in Guatemala. As you can see, it has a very powerful (and apparently specific) attractant for polistine wasps. This image was by no means an exception...my experience was that this species packs dozens of wasps into its upper pitchers (but not basals or intermediates) as soon as they are open for business.

 

While there are carnivorous plants (CPs) that are extremely efficient predators of some insect pests in cultivation, IME, they make handsome but useless biocontrols. As an aside, under semi-natural conditions and in some "open" shadehouses the giant nepenthes species capture rodents, lizards and small birds on such a regular basis that it seems highly unlikely there are not small vertebrate specialists out there.

BS Man: there are quite a lot of nepenthes growers in SD county and I know that there are/used to be some interesting outdoor collections in La Jolla and Encinitas. I am pretty sure there is an active local CP society. Overhead, intermittent mist is a huge plus in your area, and not bad for most palms either.

J

 

 

 

[PALM MOD]

8 hours ago, stone jaguar said:

Dean:

I had many, many dozens of immense nepenthes specimens representing >40 species populating in densely-planted garden in Guat and never noticed any visible impact on insect populations there, in spite of the presence of hundreds of aerial pitchers actively trapping all day, every day for 16 years.

The ecology of nepenthes is so fascinating, complex and diverse that any discussion of even the basics would run to a very lengthy magazine article. Execsum is that the basal (terrestrial/rosette) pitchers of most species are generalists that randomly trap "forest floor plankton" like cockroaches, crickets, woodlice and other arthropods. The upper (aerial) pitchers tend to be a bit more specialized, with some taxa targeting very specific families (e.g. wasps and nasutiform termites). I am not aware of any that are particularly efficient moth traps.

This is an aerial pitcher of Nepenthes platychila, a rare endemic of the Hose Mountain cloud forests of Sarawak, growing in my old garden in Guatemala. As you can see, it has a very powerful (and apparently specific) attractant for polistine wasps. This image was by no means an exception...my experience was that this species packs dozens of wasps into its upper pitchers (but not basals or intermediates) as soon as they are open for business.

 

While there are carnivorous plants (CPs) that are extremely efficient predators of some insect pests in cultivation, IME, they make handsome but useless biocontrols. As an aside, under semi-natural conditions and in some "open" shadehouses the giant nepenthes species capture rodents, lizards and small birds on such a regular basis that it seems highly unlikely there are not small vertebrate specialists out there.

BS Man: there are quite a lot of nepenthes growers in SD county and I know that there are/used to be some interesting outdoor collections in La Jolla and Encinitas. I am pretty sure there is an active local CP society. Overhead, intermittent mist is a huge plus in your area, and not bad for most palms either.

J

 

 

 

Thanks Jay - I figured that there weren't short easy answers, but as always you provided gobs of useful info and piqued my interest. 

Your comments on the small vertebrates has me wondering now if they might help in some capacity with the control of the invasive Coqui tree frog here in Hawaii that you might have heard about. They are particularly fond of hiding in the wet areas of bromeliads, so they may also find a pitcher a cozy place to visit and stay eternally.  

[The Silent Seed]

Don't some arboreal frogs actually "nest" in pitchers? 

I think I've seen a nature show portraying tadpoles living in the caustic juices of pitchers… if my memory serves...