Bicalcarata humidity damage

[trashcan]

Hello,

I left my lowland plants in my room outside of their terrarium for about 24 hours, and most of them survived fine. The rafflesiana pitchers look a little dessicated, but the plant is fine. I turned the heater on so my room was about 85 degrees, but I didn't think to mist (doh). Check out how temperamental my bicalcarata was:

Ouch...

The reason I'm posting about the bical, is I'm curious why mine looks so different. Its not squat and bulbous like other ones I have seen, its mostly thin and cylindrical (although a little more squat now). Is it because it's not mature? Do other people have young bicals that look like this? I haven't ever seen any pics like mine. Here is a shot of one of the pitchers:

Just curious.

Thanks,
Pat

 

[superimposedhope]

My bical is very small but the pitchers so far are closer to long than squat. Sorry I have no pics though.

Joe

 

[trashcan]

That's OK.. Does it look like mine?

Pat

 

[superimposedhope]

Yes....very much so. Perhaps like me, it gets fatter as it gets older.

 

[Jason Wong]

At first I thought it was a bicalcarata X gracilis or a bical X mirabilis

(Don't know whether that exists...), but after I saw the close up, I can tell you thats definetely a bical

(looks like mine, only that mine's drying up looks 'dead' now...please see page 3 of the boards to see whether you can help...nooo...

Jason

 

[Jason Wong]

perishing by de second...

 

[schloaty]

Dang, Pat! That's just 24 hours of lower humidity? Could you hazzard a guess as to just how low the humidity was? I mean, was your room THAT dry?
On your other question, what is the diameter of the plant? I have one that's maybe 5", and the pitchers are already getting squat. The first couple were a little elongated, but nothing like that. Does your plant have fangs? If not, it may be a hybrid. If it does have fangs, it's surely a bical, as the fangs (to my knowledge) never show up in bical hybrids.

 

[trashcan]

My room is pretty dry... The humidity meter says 40% right now, but who knows how accurate those things are.

The diameter of the plant is eight inches. You can't see the fangs because the humidity made the lid curl down. Here is an older picture with fangs exposed:

I bought the plant from MT a long time ago, and lost the label when I moved. I noticed they have two varieties for sale, so I was wondering if I had a different variety possibly than most people. Or just a poorly grown plant.

Check out the difference in the pictures shown for the two varieties on MT's site:
Sri Aman:

Marudi:

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Could be from a different area.. hard to say. The pictures from MT are misleading because the one is from a large mature red one and the other is from a small seedling (sri Aman). N. bicalcarata does tend to have taller, narrower pitchers when young.

T

 

[The Griffin]

Years ago, when we had the Rocky Mnt CP Society, we had a sale and exhibit at a butterfly pavillion. Rich Ellis brought a large bical. He misted it often and may have even had a humidifier turned on it. It still suffered this kind of damage(maybe not as bad) and took months to recover. That was for five hours outside of his grow chamber.

Regards,

Joe

 

[swords]

I can't tell how big your plant is or how large the pitchers in question are but if it's young and small 5-8" diameter and 1-2" pitchers that's not a surprising way for it to look (other than the dessication that is).

However, if your plant is getting near 12" in diameter and still looks like that then I would say your lighting is probably too low as that will cause the plant to have large weak leaves and juvenile sized/shaped pitchers. At 10-12" in diameter (6" leaves) my N. bicals had 3-4" adult shaped/colored pitchers but mine are also growing directly under 240 Watts of fluorescent lighting and 400W metal halide respectively.

good luck!

 

[Borneo]

N. bicalcarata is more sensitive to sudden drops in humidity than any other Nepenthes I know, especially if it has been grown under soft conditions.

Regarding the form, the Sri Aman form looks to me very much like a form that we have been weeding out of our lab clones here. I believe it to be N. bicalcarata x (bicalcarata x gracilis). If I'm right about your plant then the leaves will be a little narrower than is usual for N. bicalcarata. I do agree though that the pitchers are longer when immature but the shape of the pitcher and the narrowness of the mouth look just like the hybrid mentioned above.

 

[trashcan]

Thanks for the info everyone!

Mr Cantley: Have you heard anything about Malesiana Tropicals mistakenly distributing bicalcarata hybrids as N.bicalcarata? I purchased the plant in 2002. Or are you not implying that mine might be a hybrid?

Thanks,
Pat

 

[rubrarubra]

Hi Pat,
My bicalcarata kept on making the thin elongated pitchers you're seeing, until it hit 9" diameter and it put out a beatiful fanged pitcher.

I had a similar though milder form of the blackening happen all my bicalcs. I was spraying them with some miticide, and then left them for 1/2 hour or so to dry. All the small pitchers blackened at the top.

Peter

 

[Lauderdale]

This is my 1.5 year old bical.  It survived our cool (as low as fifty degrees), dry, windy winter and a recent re-potting to a very large pot.  That could be a mistake...how big is this thing going to get?
Bruised and battered, it has survived.  The leaves are five inches and the three pitcher are typically fat but only about 1.5 inches.

Not a particularly interesting pic but it gives you an idea that it is a short squat little guy.

 

[trashcan]

Well, I feel a little silly. The newest pitcher opened while I was away for the last day or two, and it looks quite a bit more squat. I'll post a pic later when I'm feeling better.

See ya,
Pat

 

[Dyflam]

This is my latest bical pitcher...

The pitchers have always been kind of squatty on mine.

 

[schloaty]

Arg! I just found out I let my bical go one day too long between watering! Man, Sunday it looked fine, and last night is was all wilted with blackening lower leaves!
I gave it a good soaking....Hope it recovers....

 

[The Griffin]

I hate that "one day too late" thing. Man have I suffered with that one.
Bicals get, I believe, 4 ft in diameter without too much problem.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Trent]

We have a large female bicalcarata that measures more than five feet across from leaf tip to leaf tip. We call her "Big Mama". Those of you who are coming over to our place on May 15 afternoon can have your picture taken standing next to her

Trent
Boca Raton, Florida