edwardsiana and macrophylla

[Meaven]

I've been hearing macrophylla described a lot as edwardsiana ssp. macrophylla. i know they are closely related, but is it accurate to define macro as a subspecies of edward?

that aside, is edwardsiana in cultivation anywhere?

 

[witzelsucht]

Nepenthes macrophylla was originally described as a subspecies of Nepenthes edwardsiana but Jebb and Cheek raised it to the species rank when they reviewed the genus. Charles Clarke has a detailed discussion of this in Nepenthes of Borneo and agrees with their interpretation. There is always room for debate on these things, however.

There are no commercial sources for N. edwardsiana that I am aware of.

Cheers,
Rich

 

[glider14]

private collections have them.... but they arent released to the public yet... too bad

Alex

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

N. edwardsiana has been getting a reputation that it apparantly needs extremely high quality water....RO might not even be good enough for it. I also hear its very slow growing for a while, especially if in less than ideal conditions. Seems this one will be even more of a challenge to keep happy than N. villosa.

 

[FarmerDave]

DARN IT!

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

How can you get better quality water than RO? Distilled is pretty pure too. That just baffles my mind. These plants grow in the wild. There is no magic RO system where they grow to purify their water before it is given to the plants. Rain water has contaminants in it too. So this just baffles my mind.

I personally would like to see every species available to the public.

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

I was getting at distilled quality. My RO is pretty darned pure as well...I think its only like 10ppm of TDS. But as some lecure material has recently documented, N. edwardsiana is very picky about water quality and TDS. It could have something to do with its natural soil in habitat that perhaps filters out certain contaminants...

 

[Clint]

Wow.

DI.

 

[FarmerDave]

DI=??

 

[Clint]

Deionization

 

[FarmerDave]

OK??

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

What is the point of adding "OK??" to this conversation.....

Please no chit chat guys, you know that. Nothing is wrong with explaining something, you don't have to reply to every single comment/remark someone makes.

 

[witzelsucht]

Quote[/b] (nepenthes gracilis @ Dec. 17 2006,10:58)]N. edwardsiana has been getting a reputation that it apparantly needs extremely high quality water....RO might not even be good enough for it. I also hear its very slow growing for a while, especially if in less than ideal conditions. Seems this one will be even more of a challenge to keep happy than N. villosa.

Keep in mind that N. edwardsiana is EXCEEDINGLY rare in cultivation so anything you hear about its needs is inevitably based on a very limited sample size. Macrophylla and villosa are both very slow growing so it would not surprise me if edwardsiana was as well.. I'd take the comments about needing exceedingly pure water with huge chunk of TDS (grain of salt).

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Just saying what someone's research has proven for them. I also hear their sample size wasn't that small....many many seedlings apparantly. Was in one of the ICPS issues.

 

[Pyro]

ANd for what it is worth there are more than just that one persons. I happen to know of two other people who recieved seed and they report the same thing. Very picky plants.

 

[Metranisome]

Definition: Removal of ions. The term is generally used with respect to removal of ions from water. Deionization is commonly achieved by passing the water through successive ion exchange columns. In one column, ions are exchanged for H+ ions. In another column, anions are exchanged for OH- ions. Following a reaction of H+ with OH- ions, no ions remain in solution.
source: http://chemistry.about.com/library/glossary/bldef52900.htm

Does that mean Distilled water is safe?

 

[Clint]

Quote[/b] (witzelsucht @ Dec. 17 2006,2:32)]

Quote[/b] (nepenthes gracilis @ Dec. 17 2006,10:58)]N. edwardsiana has been getting a reputation that it apparantly needs extremely high quality water....RO might not even be good enough for it. I also hear its very slow growing for a while, especially if in less than ideal conditions. Seems this one will be even more of a challenge to keep happy than N. villosa.

Keep in mind that N. edwardsiana is EXCEEDINGLY rare in cultivation so anything you hear about its needs is inevitably based on a very limited sample size. Macrophylla and villosa are both very slow growing so it would not surprise me if edwardsiana was as well.. I'd take the comments about needing exceedingly pure water with huge chunk of TDS (grain of salt).

IF I had one, I wouldn't risk it. I wonder how long we have to wait to get them?

 

[the great cornholio]

Last weekend I saw a N. edwardsiana in a private collection happily growing alongside lowlanders (ampuillaria, rafflesiana, sumatrana) as well as highlanders (burbidgea, veitchii, macrophylla, alata, lowii etc) in an intermediate (more highland in winter) greenhouse. The N. edwardsiana measured about 15inches wide and tall and had several 5inch traps on it. I didn't make out the small details of the traps because it was growing behind a massive screen of N. alata vines. It was not a mis-id'd macrophylla. The owner also had those. The lowlanders and highlanders seemed equally happy. They were all thriving. It was truly strange seeing all of these plants together.