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What are they called? And why do they appear?

Nepenthes%20shoot%201.jpg

Nepenthes%20shoot%202.jpg

Hi, I don't think these are basal shoots as basal shoots appear around the base of the plant. correct?
For no reason, 3 of my nepenthes have suddenly produced shoots out of the wooden vine part of the plant. This woody stem has been bare for several months with only the upper part having green leaves etc.
What causes these shoots to appear? What are they called?
Many thanks.
Happy growing, Neil
 
You could call them basal shoots if they produce lower pitchers, which will be very likely. Your plant has just decided to give you some more clones of itself I guess. Nepenthes will generally do that when the vines are long and old.
 
Cutting the plants back will often cause little growths from the woody looking parts of the plant.  Radical cutting back is a last resort, but one I get to more often than I'd like.  

Notice how the stem where the growth is occurring is close to the medium?  I don't think that's a coincidence.  One way to propagate neps is to scrape or lightly slit a stem that is drooping down over the medium and push the stem into the medium where you cut it.  That's supposed to make a new plant.  I think that's what you are seeing.  

Neps will make basal growth periodically, new vines from the seemingly "dead" parts of the stem, reproduce from a vine growing down in the medium, or reproduce sexually if they feel like it, I guess.  Cutting plants back always stimulates new growth, if the plant isn't sick or dying.  Any accidental  damage to the plant can cause new growth.  I'm still working on how to benefit from that one.

I just, um, made a minor temperature error with a couple ampullaria that were pretty well rooted.  I cut the plants totally back into the "wooden" part of the stem -- removing all the leaves (they were dead or dying).  That's radical surgery, I know.  I'm already getting little growths on the red ampullaria (Thank goodness) to replace the upper part that I, honestly, accidentally refrigerated outdoors while on vacation.  The green speckled ampullaria really didn't like the wind chill to say the least.  It was covered, but not enough.    I'm in wait-and-see mode.  

Making emergency cuttings from dead -- looking -- vines is not the end of the world.  If you kill the leaves and pitchers, as bad as that is, it does not mean your plant is necessarily dead.  As you can see, the older parts of the plant will kick out new plants or new vines.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Beagle @ Jan. 15 2004,06:18)] 

Notice how the stem where the growth is occurring is close to the medium?  I don't think that's a coincidence.  One way to propagate neps is to scrape or lightly slit a stem that is drooping down over the medium and push the stem into the medium where you cut it.  That's supposed to make a new plant.  I think that's what you are seeing.  
Thats called "ground layering".

As for the sprouts I believe they are termed "auxillary shoots".
 
They are correctly called Axillary meristems. All plants produce these some more dominant that others.
 
In plain english, when the stem touches down, proticularly if the vine gets injerd, it puts roots out as though it were a cutting. In plain english, we call them off shoots ;). The term for a plant doing this that I have most often heard is jumping as it often involves vines or droopy shoots having their tip take root, a new vine start and repeat the prossess causing a cute little line of plants.

This is just another way of making sure the plant has access to as many growing condidtions as possible and can travel more safely if the parent plant can feed the babies untill opertunity knocks and they can fend for themselves (like a tree fall). A lot of plants send out long roots that do this insted and some do both. The only real difference is one works above ground while the other works below ground.
 
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