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Heliamphora chimantensis, etc . . .

I have always had a real love and hate relationship with Heliamphora -- love them when they grow rapidly and occasionally reach “spectacular” size, and loathe them when they remain interminably juvenile, sometimes for years at a stretch (even after threatening them as I have, with the salad bowl).

Finally, this is coming to a close for one such frustrating bit of green -- Heliamphora exappendiculata, which had been “thumbing its chin” at me since 2008. Its first mature pitcher is now on its way. Perhaps the thought of a salad spinner and a very expensive tossed green salad (even by SF standards) was the last straw . . .

Heliamphora exappendiculata (Apacapa)
HEXAPP.jpg


Among other more . . . vigorous favorites, has always been H. chimantensis -- first described only in 2002 (http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v31n3p78_82.html) -- with its tight clumping leaves, very distinctive shape, and sometimes overpowering floral fragrance, which attracts bees and wasps beyond number by June. My plants have produced viable seed on occasion; but apparently, this species is more dependent upon division for reproduction in the field -- along the order of Darlingtonia.

Heliamphora chimantensis
HCHIM-A.jpg


HCHIMC.jpg


HCHIMAN.jpg
 
Wonderful helis as always bigbella!

I can't even imagine how frustrating it would be to have a heli stay juvenile for 2 years! I can hardly wait until the juvenile H. hispida grows its first adult pitcher. At what size do juvenile pitchers have to be before they become adult pitchers? (Clearly being the correct size doesn't mean it will produce adult pitchers though.)
 
Thanks . . .

I too have a few H. hispida, which are still producing their share of juvenile leaves -- also after a couple of years.

Andreas Wistuba once described a method for ushering in -- or stimulating the production -- of mature pitchers by clipping away a few of the juveniles as they were being produced; and I have attempted that on occasion, but could not determine whether it was the primary reason (or potentially, just the age of the plants) for the later appearance of mature pitchers . . .
 
Interesting, I might have tried that but my it stopped producing new pitchers recently.

Also, I actually got the heli from you. Thanks again.
 
Amazing plants and pics as always BigB. I havent seen a photo of H. chimantensis in cultivation before, Thanks for sharing!
 
Beautiful plants as always; thanks for sharing!
 
Beautiful as always BB....

Here is my H. chimantensis (Wistuba)
Not as far along as yours is... but not too far behind :)
H_chim.jpg


H_chim2.jpg


possibly different clones?

Av
 
Very nice plant there, Butch . . .

The smaller of my H. chimantensis (the last photo) came from Wistuba, though the older ones were adult divisions, whose origins are currently unknown. The nectar spoons do change shape a bit as the plant matures; and the earliest ones were flat and resembled the bent ends of coffee stirring sticks.

I am hoping to get some shots of wasps on the plants this time around. They were swarming everywhere in 2009 . . .

Heliamphora chimantensis
HCHIM.jpg
 
spectacular plants guys!! wow!!!
 
  • #10
You and I have discussed this before over at cpuk. IMHO mine doesn't really fit the official description written by Wistuba.
Even though I personally got my plant from Wistuba and he confirmed that similar cpuk plant as H. chimantensis

Otherwise, I would have identified it as H. chimantensis x pulchella

I'll say it again, the Heli waters are muddy at best...
Av
 
  • #11
You got that right.

I had one plant that had been misidentified as H. neblinae by a number of people and just recently saw one at D'Amato's place (N. neblinae?) which could easily have been a toss-up between the two . . .
 
  • #12
One day I hope the ICPS will sanction an official taxonomy key.... the only two I know of are now very outdated and incomplete.

Does the one in the first images have the long slit?
 
  • #13
Here's what gets me...

Pitchers infundibulate in the lower half, slightly ventricose in the middle and cylindrical to slightly infundibulate in the upper third (see Figure 1); pitchers 20 to 35 cm long, 3.5-5 cm wide in the upper part; upper part of the pitchers completely glabrous on the inner side; pitchers entirely green with deep red lids. Lid 1-2 cm wide and 2-2.5 cm long, spoon-shaped, upright, ending with a sharp tip; the two lobes of the lid compressed from the sides near the tip, often touching each other at the front, forming a quasi-helmet; lobes are expanded in the lower part of the lid and narrowed sharply near the base; the inner side of the lid with prominent irregularly shaped patches of glands, up to 5 mm across. Inflorescence 60 to 65 cm long, 3-5 flowers, peduncle slightly pubescent, pedicels 5-13 cm long. The lowest peduncle is the longest and bears a bract that frequently is transformed into a rudimentary pitcher. Tepals lanceolate, 4.5-5.5 cm long, 1.2-1.7 cm wide, white to whitish-pink; ca. 20 stamens in 1 series, filaments 6 mm long, anthers oblong lanceolate, 5 mm long, 1 mm wide; ovary 3 celled, pubescent, style glabrous. Seed approximately 2 mm long, compressed, ovate, irregularly winged.......

We observed numerous hybrids between Heliamphora chimantensis and the Heliamphora minor on Chimanta. These hybrids can be easily distinguished from pure Heliamphora chimantensis by the shorter pitchers, the red veins and the coarse bristles inside the pitchers. Some of the hybrids’ pitchers showed deep red coloration, similar to the form of H. minor growing on Chimanta. The helmet shaped lids of these show a strong influence of Heliamphora minor. Apparently the hybrids are much more vigorous than either of the parent plants; we found patches of single clones measuring more than 5 meters across


Now with this in mind, look at my H. chimantensis again:
H_chim2.jpg


I just dont know.... the experts say its a chimantensis, but it sure doesnt match the original description IMHO
mud, mud, mud.... ugh
 
  • #14
You and I have discussed this before over at cpuk. IMHO mine doesn't really fit the official description written by Wistuba.
Even though I personally got my plant from Wistuba and he confirmed that similar cpuk plant as H. chimantensis

Otherwise, I would have identified it as H. chimantensis x pulchella

I'll say it again, the Heli waters are muddy at best...
Av

Looking through McPherson's Pitcher Plants of the Americas, Thomas Carow's Karnivoren, images from Wistuba, old Venezuelan slides of mine from the late eighties, and other online sources leads me to believe that there is far more variety to the appearance of H. chimantensis than is generally thought. Figure 144 in Pitcher Plants shows a photo of H. chimantensis x pulchella, though that image far more closely resembles the features of H. pulchella (especially the nectar spoon) than your H. chimantensis.

To add further confusion, the amount of light and water greatly affects the appearance -- size and shape -- of Helamphora, both in cultivation and the wild . . .


Heliamphora chimantensis -- December 2009
HNEBLINAE2.jpg
 
  • #15
Agreed.... most features are highly environmental dependent. That leaves us with the non-environmental characteristics such as drain, hair, flower etc.
I don't remember the specifics about your H. neblinae discussion on cpuk, but didn't the other person's example have the wrong pitcher drain and hair features? Yet it was "officially" accepted to be correct.
My H. chimantensis is another example of a similar situation..
If we cant even go by these characteristics then what is the hobbyist to do?
I guess mine is a true chimantensis variant, it certainly should be.... it came from the same man who wrote the official description

but IMHO it sure doesn't match it... so the only alternative remaining is the official description requires updating

So then my question becomes, what makes a chimantensis a chimantensis

ugh...
 
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