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Next on Springer: "My Nepenthes is a TRANNY!"

I've heard rumors about this happening, but I wonder if any of you have seen this occur in your own plants: gender switching. I have a BE clone of N. vogelii that flowered 14 months ago, and provided me with loads of pollen, with which I successfully made several crosses.
A few days ago I was watching that plant and thought to myself - "I need to check again in a couple days to see if there's pollen to collect", and today I looked, and the plant has opened its first half dozen blooms (on two spikes on the ends of two long vines). And guess what? Now its a female! I have two clones of N. vogelii, and last summer they both flowered at the same time and I remember expressing to several friends how disappointed I was that they were both male, as it would have been nice to make species seed. So I have two plants and have seen both flower before, and both were male, so I know I'm not imagining things...
Anyone here seen this happen?

img_1576-e1442067634631.jpg
 
Crazy but that's good!

Ramon:D
 
Let´s hope the other one stays male so you can get your species seeds :)
 
Interesting! Do most of the flowers have 6 sepals instead of the usual 4?
 
Paul, a friend of mine swears that his Nepenthes hamata has also gone the way of Bruce Jenner. All that I can hope is that he used protection when he placed depleted uranium in the moss . . .

No more Wheaties for me . . .
 
Very interesting. Had no idea that could happen. Great close-up pic too by the way.
 
I just had a friend message me and point out that this may explain how there are both male AND female clones of N. Lady Pauline in cultivation......
 
  • #10
Strangely, my friend's plant, which swapped sex this last year, was seed grown, not tissue cultured . . .
 
  • #11
How long can Nepenthes pollen be stored? If it was at all possible I'd have to try and self that thing!
 
  • #12
How long can Nepenthes pollen be stored? If it was at all possible I'd have to try and self that thing!

Wonder if the resulting seedlings would be any good on the banjo:) I thought the same might get some weird recessive genes going on, think pollen has been frozen and successfully used after a year
 
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  • #13
Very interesting, I've heard of this with other plants, never a CP before though.
 
  • #14
How long before nepenthes flower? I'd be interested to see if any of mine do this.
 
  • #15
Strangely, my friend's plant, which swapped sex this last year, was seed grown, not tissue cultured . . .

David, I suspect this phenomenon has nothing to do with it being a tissue cultured plant - I expect this is something some individuals can do as part of their natural reproductive process. Just think how easy it would be to miss this phenomenon in wild populations! I mean, there are very, very few plants that anyone tracks and visits repeatedly in situ, and even if they did, odds are they might not notice the sex change when/if it happened. And who knows how rarely it occurs in natural settings.

Maybe it's entirely induced by cultivation technique? Though I've gone to great effort to emulate the rain forest conditions this genus needs to thrive, undoubtedly there are some aspects of my care that fall outside normal environmental conditions. For example, temperature: this has been an exceptional hot summer in the PNW, with many days exceeding 95F for several hours each afternoon. I can keep temps inside the greenhouse down to about 88F near the peak of the house, but perhaps that exceeds "normal" for several species I grow, and maybe enough hours above 82F (arbitrary figure) triggers a "Jennerization", prompting a normally male plant to produce female scapes! I'm thinking of that as being like the inverse of how many temperate fruit trees require an accumulation of chill-hours in order to flower the following spring. It's a well known fact that stressors in the environment can prompt strange changes in an organisms behavior or appearance, so it's not hard to imagine a similar mechanism at work here.

Or or maybe some individuals* - once they reach a certain age - can afford the resources to manufacture seeds (an expensive proposition for any plant; they have to have the resources available to make seeds or the plant can die from the effort) and so they can switch gender once they feel able to make seed, which is surely an asset in terms of increasing species survivability. With an average of 7 males to every 3 females in most species found in situ, adding a few more females to the equation - especially healthy, robust adults that can afford to make copious seed - would be a real asset, wouldn't you think? So, David - do you happen to know if your friends hamata was an older, fully established adult plant or not?

Now, the big questions are: 1) is this plant going to produce viable seed when pollinated? and 2) will it remain female from now on, or is it going to be inclined to switch back to male once it no longer senses the pressure or influence that switched it?

*There is speculation by a few authors suggesting that polyploids in certain genera can switch sex from male to female if the meristematic growing point reverts to diploid. See: International Carnivorous Plant Society - Nepenthes Phylogeny (That link is a fantastic article by John Brittnacher) Whether this may a mechanism for gender change in Nepenthes is unknown, however. It is worth noting as well, that all Nepenthes species tested have shown to be octoploids, but cytologically behave as diploids! So there is genetic weirdness going on in this genus, and who knows what much of it really means.
 
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  • #16
*There is speculation by a few authors suggesting that polyploids can switch sex from male to female if the meristematic growing point reverts to diploid.

I should look into that. I'm doing a project related to polyploidy soon, so I'll make a few polyploids of a plant that I know the sex of, and see if any of them change.

Also, do Nepenthes have a way of releasing hormones or such into their environment to change the sex of one or more of them similar to how clownfish will?
 
  • #17
Also, do Nepenthes have a way of releasing hormones or such into their environment to change the sex of one or more of them similar to how clownfish will?

I doubt anyone has studied that possibility. Few have access to a large enough body of plants to even consider such an investigation. But it would be a great thing to look into! I suspect the mechanism is "knowable", but I don't think anyone has gone looking for it - yet!
 
  • #18
How long can Nepenthes pollen be stored? If it was at all possible I'd have to try and self that thing!

If you're lucky, it will last a year if properly dried, then frozen. But it's moot, since I didn't store any of its pollen last year :-( If only I'd known what this year was going to bring......
 
  • #19
Next year it pulls up its roots and walks, or is that sashays?
 
  • #20
Next year it pulls up its roots and walks, or is that sashays?

At this point, I wouldn't discount the possibility! Probably take itself off to the mall to buy a new wardrobe!
 
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