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Well this was rather unexpected ...

  • Thread starter DragonsEye
  • Start date

DragonsEye

carnivorous plants of the world -- unite!

So obtained a Nep. maxima -- think it is supposedly "mini" though the pitchers don't seem terribly mini to me ??? , but no big deal either way -- from a member here a few years ago. It was a rooted cutting of the vining stage. Plant did well for me, pitchered great over the summers (catching quite a few yellow jackets). All the pitchers were uppers. Well the plant got too big for my space so I knew it was time to send it on its way to a new home. It had formed two new growths about 1-2 inches above the media so I removed those to root and got rid of the main plant. I was hoping for basal growths but had been told that, due to how high on the stem they had formed, they were likely still vine-stage growths. Would have preferred basals, but figured "okay". Both cuttings rooted successfully. Being vine-stage growth off a vine that was strictly making uppers, I assumed these would go directly to making uppers as well. One of them has started pitchering. Much to my pleasant surprise, it is currently making lowers which are more colorful and attractive than the uppers.

Nep maxima lower pitcher sideview.jpg

Nep maxima lower pitcher front.jpg

 
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The "miniature" maxima are so denoted not because the pitchers have to be small (though they usually are), but for the stature of the plant as a whole. If the leaves are smaller than a normal maxima alongside narrower stem etc. then it might be a miniature even with larger pitchers, but if the whole thing is around the same size as a regular maxima then the label's wrong.
1-2" above the soil is still perfectly within the range of being able to be considered a basal, especially when one considers how in the wild soil might build up so that such a level might even end up underground. And it's certainly low enough to mean lower pitchers are far more likely than uppers.
 
Very nice! Very different from my mini, which is grey.
 
I'm not very experienced with nepenthes cuttings, but the few times I've made them, they've been from vines (don't even know if you can take cuttings off basals short of separating the entire basal and rooting it). The new growth that forms is a new basal. I've only rooted a few cuttings so far, but never seen it vine right off from the cutting. I guess that is because it isn't the vine continuing growth, but a node activating into a new growth point.

BTW, that pitcher looks fabulous!
 
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