Last weekend, the Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society had its annual summer potluck at California Carnivores in Sebastopol. The featured speaker was Bill Hoyer, who discussed several outlying Nepenthes (N. pervillei, N. madagascariensis, and N. masoalensis) along with treks to Sulawesi and Palawan.
Bill Hoyer discussing nectar drinking behavior of geckos on N. pervillei in the Seychelles
Besides being a very large retail nursery, California Carnivores has a very large collection of specimen plants. While they have revamped and expanded their Heliamphora collection, which is beautiful in its own right, I only escaped with Nepenthes photos:
N. singalana x hamata Red Hairy — this plant is a monster N. rigidifolia from Malesiana Tropicals N. robcantleyi QoH x KoS — this is one of several larger robcantleyi in the collectionN. maxima Wavy Leaf from BE — I think this is one of the nicest forms of maxima around and I’m surprised it isn’t more popular N. veitchii from the late Geoff WongN. platychilaN. lowii x truncata — a huge plant with forearm-sized pitchersN. hamata lower pitcherThis is probably N. macrophylla, although I didn’t check the pot labelAn N. lowii G. Trusmadi upperAfter seeing this young N. undulatifolia at the nursery collection, I understand much better why this plant is part of the tentaculata group
I have plenty of work to do in the highland collection now that I’m home for the summer. I repotted a few plants:
N. robcantleyi “Queen of Hearts x King of Spades”; one of BE’s 550 TC clonesN. truncata; this plant has a very large root systemN. chaniana BE-3434; I moved this one up to a 3.5 inch pot from a 3 inch, but the plant itself is about 14 inches in diameter!
And I picked up a couple from the BACPS Show and Sale:
N. tobaica x tentaculata; an uncommonly beautiful horticultural hybrid from a local growerN. mira; a young male plant from BE
Plus a few others looking nice at the moment:
N. glandulifera from Borneo Exotic’s initial seed grown release; they now have tissue culture clones from this seed set on their catalogN. sp. Langkawi – this undiagnosed taxon from Langkawi Island acts as a nice miniature for meN. albomarginata, seed grown from Balik Pulau, Penang; this pitcher was formed in a very shady spot, so it lacks its usual red speckles
Two new species of Nepenthes and one amended species description are described in an article recently published by Gronemeyer et. al in the journal Plants. The two new species are Nepenthes aenigma Nuytemans, W. Suarez, Calaramo and Nepenthes justinae Gronem., Wistuba, Mey, V.B.Amoroso; additionally, the species description of N. ramos Jebb and Cheek is emended and N. kurata Jebb and Cheek is now claimed as a heterotypic synonym of N. ramos.
Nepenthes aenigma is a taxon known from 3 small populations on two undisclosed mountains in Ilocos Norte. This species, part of the Insignes group, was known under the name Nepenthes sp. “Luzon”, detailed in McPherson’s New Nepenthes Volume I. Its rediscovery and many habitat photos can be found on this thread by Suarez on the Pitcher Plants proboard forum. Its 1200 masl habitat is characterized by dense vegetation, including bamboo and Pandanus sp., and plants are found growing in leaf litter in dimly lit and windswept conditions. The epithet aenigma refers to the unusual ecology of the species, and in the paper it is delimited from N. ventricosa (which it can be found growing alongside) and N. burkei.
Nepenthes justinae; several photos of the new species can be found here on Wikimedia Commons [Source]Nepenthes justinae, an endemic of Mt. Hamiguitan, Mindanao, is also described. Considered part of the N. alata group, it is separated from N. mindanaoensis based on its pitcher morphology. N. justinae is characterized by its larger bulbous portion in lower pitchers (2/3, as opposed to 1/4 in N. mindanaoensis) , strongly dimorphic upper pitchers, monomorphic nectar glands, and the presence of a lid appendage in its upper pitchers. N. justinae grows both terrestrially in ultramafic soil and epiphytically at 1200-1620 masl, and is found alongside N. hamiguitanensis, N. peltata, and N. micramphora.
Additionally, Nepenthes ramos is emended with field studies from Mt. Hibok-Hibok; due to N. ramos‘ variability and widespread distribution in Mindanao and Surigao, N. kurata of Mt. Malindang (which was described owing to differences in wing structure, lid morphology, and pitcher constriction) is claimed as a heterotypic synonym. In this thread on the Pitcher Plants proboard, Gronemeyer says that most plants identified as N. alata in Mindanao are likely N. ramos, and several of his photos from Mt. Hibok-Hibok can be found here (German). N. ramos, unlike N. alata and N. graciliflora, is predominantly double-flowered.
The botanical illustration for Jebb and Cheek’s N. kurata [Source]Of the three species, N. justinae and N. ramos are in cultivation. It’s refreshing to see a paper with such detailed botanical drawings and descriptions backed with extensive field work. It will be interesting to see what will happen to N. kurata in Jebb and Cheek’s upcoming world monograph: will they continue to make a case for its species status and will they accept the amendments to N. ramos?
Jebb and Cheek have recently published an article on Nepenthes taxonomy in the journal Blumea leading up to their world monograph on the genus. The new article centers around their key to the newly described section Tentaculatae, a group of related species (unsurprisingly) close to Nepenthes tentaculata. The section, which many Nepenthes growers are already acquainted with informally, includes N. tentaculata, muluensis, murudensis, glabrata, hamata, pitopangii, nigra and undulatifolia, all of which are species restricted to Borneo and Sulawesi. The authors note strong genetic support for the former five species based on specific chloroplast genes (Mullins, 2000)
Nepenthes tentaculata (Borneo Exotics, G. Murud), the type species of the group
Additionally, they describe a new species of highland Nepenthes from a herbarium specimen from a single undisclosed peak in Sulawesi, included in their new section, named Nepenthes maryae (after Mary Mendum, a staff botanist at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh, who collected the type on expedition with George Argent). Nepenthes maryae is characterized by its hamata-like teeth (though smaller) and heavy indumentum, persistently present on the its stems and, intriguingly, on the underside of the lid surface (which they compare to Nepenthes lowii, ephippiata, and macfarlanei).
Nepenthes nigra of Sulawesi
The combination of teeth and the indumentum drew some speculation that the peculiar “Red Hairy hamata” taxon from an undisclosed mountain in Sulawesi was finally described; however, this does not seem to be the case using the authors’ key. This detailed forum topic at CPUK compares and contrasts the Red Hairy taxon with a pretty standard hamata, and while it’s difficult to make concrete conclusions from cultivated material, a few things can be noticed. A few cursory details:
The Red Hairy taxon has glabratous stems, unlike N. maryae (whose persistent indumentum was compared to that of N. undulatifolia).
While hard to tell, it doesn’t look like there are hairs underneath the lid of the Red Hairy taxon. The fifth photo down looks like there might be, but it may be an image artifact; if this is the level of hairiness under the lids of N. maryae, Jebb and Cheek may have overstated the feature’s importance. Figure i of their line drawing is supposed to detail the hairs, which are not much longer than that of the lid’s glands. It seems odd to compare such small structures to prominent bristles like that of lowii, ephippiata, and macfarlanei.
Strangely, the male hamata displayed in the thread appears to have bracts, something that Jebb and Cheek claim is absent in the key of N. hamata vs. N. maryae. They claim that, besides N. maryae, only N. nigra is bractate and only on the lower 1/5 of the inflorescence.
The paper is based off of a single herbarium specimen from the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh, which is, unfortunately, not archived on their virtual herbarium. The collectors note that “only one or two plants” were found in situ during the collectors’ expedition, and the paper was accompanied with no field studies besides a Vulnerable assessment and the supposition that N. maryae is probably extremely localized.
Note, 7 May 2016: While there is a claim that N. maryae represents a natural hybrid between N. hamata and N. nigra, which fits well in many respects and was something I wondered about while considering the flower structure and reduced teeth, the stems of both hamata and nigra are glabratous, so a hybrid between the two species should also have a glabratous stem (or the species descriptions of N. hamata and/or N. nigra need amending!).
Nepenthes vieillardii is the most eastern-growing species in the genus Nepenthes, found only on the island of New Caledonia, to the east of the Australian continent. Not much cultivation information can be found online regarding this species and very few clones are currently in micropropagation, which is a shame.
I’ve only had this species for a few months, but it seems to be doing well so far. I grow it as a lowlander, although I keep it drier than other standard lowlanders like N. bicalcarata or N. northiana. N. vieillardii has a pretty wide altitudinal range although it can be found near sea level as well.
N. vieillardii is allied to some of the other outlying Nepenthes species, including N. pervillei, one of the plants I hope to grow again soon but is remarkably difficult to keep. Both species should enjoy similar conditions, and in any case, the upper pitchers of N. vieillardii are fairly similar to that of N. pervillei, so I might have a stand-in either way.
One thing I have noticed so far is that its root system is fairly aggressive: I can already see roots hitting the edge of the pot in several places, a good sign of things to come.
I don’t have many Pinguicula in my collection, although the few I’ve acquired over the years are pretty much effortless growers. My second Pinguicula was a generous give-away, P. esseriana, which decided to flower en-masse this spring.
I wasn’t very good at growing Mexican Pinguicula in more conventional ways with a dry winter rest. Last year, I noticed that California Carnivores grew some exceptional Pinguicula in Nepenthes pots, so I gave it a try and it’s looking promising so far.
As this quarter progresses, I’ve gotten into a coffee habit of sorts (although I’ve always preferred tea). Our dining commons has plenty of coffee, and when there are take-out cups available, I’ll usually bring some back to the dorm.
But as most Nepenthes growers know, coffee isn’t just the drink of choice for tired undergrads — it’s a pretty good fertilizer, too. While I used to use coffee on the highland collection about every six months, watering the pots with half or full strength room temperature brew, I pretty much halted my fertilizer regimes in late 2014. I switched back to heavy in-pitcher feeding with fish pellets, a technique I used when I first started growing Nepenthes in 2008, to keep my media fresh and discourage soil pathogens.
N. bicalcarata Marudi as of today; notice the increase in size due to a coffee watering in November
And it works well in practice — with a few hitches. Some plants, like N. jamban, have such thick fluid that pellets dropped into them don’t sink, but instead mold at the surface of the fluid; the only things they do seem to catch are isopods, gnats, and springtails, which work well enough since there’s plenty of prey in the highland setup. Others, like N. campanulata, are sensitive to too much food, and feeding them becomes a delicate balance between giving them enough food to increase in size without killing off the pitchers prematurely. And there’s a third category reserved solely for N. bicalcarata — I just couldn’t feed it anything!
The thing about N. bicalcarata is that it’s a myrmecophyte that relies on ants to do most of its digesting; there is some evidence that suggests that the species lacks pitcher fluid enzymes altogether. Camponotus schmitzi maintains the pitcher environment to discourage noxious conditions — Wikipedia has a great section about it. After much experimentation, it became clear that even the smallest fraction of pellets was causing the small pitchers to die, and consequently, the plant was shrinking. In a last ditch effort, I watered it with coffee (diluted to about half strength) in November of last year, seeing as I had nothing else at hand to fertilize it with. While clearly spurring its growth, I don’t think coffee is the end-all be-all fertilizer for Nepenthes growers. Check out the yellow leaves on the picture above, which I’m inclined to think is a deficiency moreso than anything else — I’ll give it a foliar feeding with MaxSea once I’m back home.
But this isn’t quite the end of the story yet. The soil pathogens that kept appearing in my highland collection after the coffee waterings didn’t appear in my N. bicalcarata pot. Besides a little bit of slime mold at the surface and a touch of mold right underneath the subsurface of the media, the media looked pristine. The roots were clearly unharmed — the tips remained white and the root hairs healthy. Even the live sphagnum beginning to grow at the sides of the clear pot seemed untouched, whereas in the highland setup live sphagnum would die back from the tips because of the coffee. So I decided to take things a step further; my N. clipeata is in the lowland tank with the same media and a topdressing of live sphagnum, so I gave it some coffee today.
Here it is pre-coffee. My line of thinking was mostly “it didn’t rot the N. bicalcarata media and I really want some larger leaves!”. N. clipeata takes to in-pitcher feeding remarkably well, but I’m greedy for more growth from it, as it is my favorite species.
And again, right after watering with full-strength coffee. Check out those surface roots!
And now, draining. I plan on flushing it several times tomorrow, and I don’t want to let any runoff into the water column — I have Neocaridina shrimp down there, and caffeine can act as a pesticide in high enough amounts.
As for what’s prevented the pathogens from flourishing, I don’t know. It could be that the closed nature of the tank prevents them from gaining a foothold. It could be that the pathogens only establish themselves when given the cold nights my highlanders need. It could be that the coffee here is somehow better than the coffee I brewed at home. It could be nothing at all!
The lesson here, if any, is that coffee probably won’t work under everyone’s conditions and might not be the best substitute to well-balanced fertilizers or feeding — but the only way you can really know is by trying.
I’m not sure why this AW clone is called “Clone U” (apparently for historical reasons?). This is one of the three pure commercial N. clipeata clones in cultivation.
The Botanical Conservatory has two fairly nice N. clipeata on display; this one’s a little shy.
There are a few N. campanulata clones in cultivation from Malesiana Tropicals that have a red flush, but it’s not a widespread trait. My BE clone is completely green.
And actually, so was my MT clone, until recently.
But the latest pitcher that opened, and the largest one to date at 2.5 cm tall, has the distinct red flush that I was eagerly anticipating. The plant itself has a diameter of roughly 5.5 cm.
This was a pleasant surprise to start the new year.
cantharifera 