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Sexing nepenthes

Just curious if anyone has noticed any plant morphological features that can help in deciding a plant whether its a male or female?
Internode length? Way that side branches/shoots develop?, shape of pitcher?,
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Any keen eyes in this group?

Mike
 
Hmmm, I reckon my female aristolochioides leans towards me when I enter the greenhouse, and my male lowii dunks me with water too often for my liking .... But seriously...

Not that I have ever been able to pick. It would be great if there were, but they all look the same to me. I wonder if someone could produce any easy DNA sex test???

H.
 
Do you know how much DNA sexing cost these days?!?!!?

But maybe a kit like a pH kit that changes the water of sap in water to show gametes of either male or female. How do they test (before ultra sound and light waves) for the sex of an unborn child?

M
 
From what I know, before ultrasounds, people didn't know the sex of their child was going to be till it was born. Not scientifically anyway. They do have old wives tales on how to tell what the baby is going to be. Heres a link on some of the ways to tell...

Link
 
There is no way to know what sex the plant is before it flowers (unless it has been used as a parent plant in other crosses such as our N. bicalcarata clone #38 'Big Mama'=female, N. wrigleyana= female, N. morganiana= female, etc...)

After the flower spike begins to form you can tell the difference between male and female flowers.  At least you have some time in advance to find the other sex.  Besides, the sex doesn't really matter until it is in bloom.  

The female flowers are slightly elongated.  Here is a pic of our female N. thorelii x densiflora developing flower spike:
Nep%20flower%20-%20female%20developing%20buds.JPG


The male flowers are round.  Here is a pic of N. 'Gentle' (male developing flower spike).
Nep%20flower%20-%20male%20developing%20buds.JPG
 
Hello Guys!

Trent! These pics that you have posted have been of a great help.

Thank you very much!
biggrin.gif
 
Trent great photos.
I sort of knew that from my plants, but was curious if anyone has noticed something like a sheath shape or maybe how the plant grows.

One method I used to use was that if a plant made a lot of offsets, this was a great potential that this was a male plant where as a plant that doesn't produce much side pups or maybe just one side pup was a female plant. Anyone seen any of this (strange cases of did you notice or do you care?) besides me? For many of my plants this has worked, but perhaps just a lucky strike.

Michael
 
Wow, I never noticed that! But now that you brought it up, I realized it is true! Good info.

Anyway, for the offsets method, I dont THINK it would work...but if it does, you will need 2 plants of the same species and age in order to sex them, and how if both were the same sex!
 
Again, there is no way to tell what sex a Nepenthes is before the flower spike appears. The offshoot theory won't hold water across the board. As an example, our female thorelii puts out tons of groundshoots, and so does the male sitting next to her.
The reason that you may think this method has merit is because most Neps are male. I'm not sure of the ratio, but it may be 1 female to every 5-10 males. A good female is hard to find.

Michael, trust us, it will only frustrate when your male is blooming and the known female refuses. It does no service to know the sex if the plant is not in bloom. Many times we will have all males in bloom, then two months later only have females in bloom. We beg and plead with the girls to flower with the boys, but they don't obey our demands.

Why does the sex matter if the plant is not in bloom?

Some Nepenthes never bloom, or at least rarely. N. 'Ron Determan' has never bloomed for anyone, and has been in cultivation for almost 20 years. While the female N. 'Splendid Diana' (or splendiana) blooms constantly.

It's a numbers game. It would be great if we could walk through our greenhouse and sex the plants based on growth habit, but that doesn't guarantee an available breeder. The more plants, the greater the chance of something in bloom.
 
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