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Interesting features - N. Splendiana x veitchii

xvart

Doing it wrong until I do it right.
Staff member
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I haven't had much time in the last few weeks to look over my plants; but when I was watering today I noticed that my two N. Splendiana x veitchii seedlings did in fact make a rebound and were starting to revive themselves. It was a pretty bad couple of weeks after receiving them, and thought for sure they were goners.

Upon further observation, one of them has interesting tendril/wing attachments. Notice that there is no tendril and the leaves actually form the wings of the pitcher. I hope this trait continues as it matures and is not just some fluke of struggling survival. The last picture is of the other seedling with apparent "normal" features.

Nsplendianaxveitchii1-81008.jpg


Nsplendianaxveitchii2-81008.jpg


Nsplendianaxveitchii3-81008.jpg


Nsplendianaxveitchii4-81008.jpg


Jay - if you see this I think I'll be able to fulfill the rest of that trade agreement now that they both are still alive!

xvart.
 
lol dont worry about it J.C. Looks great, im glad they recovered they look great.
 
i hope it stays like that, i've never seen a nep like that before.
 
Nep seedlings in my experience tend to stay like that for a while then happily push the pitcher out of the nest so to speak and let it hang on its own little tendril. I can show you with some of my N. mirabilis seedlings if you'd like :)

Hope that helped,
-J.P.
 
there are certain forms of mirabilis with wings like that and i think some hybrids involving it in EPs inventory. ill hope it stays this way but i doubt it will continue.
 
Nep seedlings in my experience tend to stay like that for a while then happily push the pitcher out of the nest so to speak and let it hang on its own little tendril.

ill hope it stays this way but i doubt it will continue.

Thanks for the input. I figured it wouldn't stay, but don't have enough experience with seedlings to know how common (or not) it is. That's why I didn't run out and say "look at this future cultivar!" lol.

xvart.
 
My N Madagascariensis did that for awhile, it finally started to do its tendrils, its about a year or 2 old now....very tiny.
 
I just happened upon this thread, but has anyone thought that this could provide clues for Nepenthes evolution? Just like comparing animal embryos, couldn't this show how the plants may have started out? Like, before the species started making that tendril, they could have started with an air pocket at the end of a leaf, and then that opened up, and later that "bubble" or "air pocket" hung on a tendril.

This also reminds me of D. binata, where the seedlings have a normal rosette, but as they get older, they develop that characteristic "T" shape.

I dunno, maybe I'm just blabbing.

-Ben
 
Well I always assumed the tendril evolved first, since it is a feature that is shared with other plants, and it seems like the plant would need it more at first to climb above/get support from competing foilage in the tropics; Then the pitcher would come later to give the plant more of an edge. But I know comparatively nothing on either evolution or biology.
 
  • #10
If you follow the theory of punctuated equlibrium the pitcher and tendril appered very quickly with little or no transitional forms. Gradualism states that random, accidental changes slowly lead to something like a pitcher.
 
  • #11
Yeah you do have a good point, krueger. But I wasn't exactly trying to say exactly how it happened, I was just sort of pouring stuff outta my mind and writing it down.

But, if you look closely at xvart's second picture, the pitcher in focus (at 12 o'clock) has its wings fused with the leaf edge. That makes me think that that is how wings may have developed earlier on. Also, the leaf edge has hairs not unlike the hairs on the wings.

I dunno, once again I could just be blabbing.

-Ben
 
  • #12
JC. I have seen this on other seedlings I have had. The plant grows out of it as it matures unfortunately and starts growing tendrils.

All my gracilis seedlings were doing that until I killed them recently. I know I am a bad grower lately. Any how I assumed they would grow out of it.

I look forward to seeing your plants as they grow.
 
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