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Nice color

Here is a windowsill Nep X ventrata.  It's coloring up nicely.  Now all I need it to do is produce some new pitchers.  

ventred.jpg
 
That certainly is a cute plant you have there Jason! Just wait until you start getting uppers, they are much more beautiful than lowers. In my recent pic thread i have a pic of uppers. Show it to that plant and it'll grow faster.
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The tendril is on the back of the pitcher.
 
I'm not to sure if that delegates an upper with this plant. I have had pitchers half the size of the ones i have on my plant now, with the tendril at the back.

Does the pitcher tendril have a loop in it? That is usually a good sign it's an upper.
 
No, thats a lower. Upper pitchers can be just as similar as lowers, but the tendril attachment and features are key. Uppers, as previously stated, have a characteristic loop in them and lowers generally have a straight sturdy tendril attachment. Uppers are generally less colored and can have reduced or flared peristome, an example would be N. inermis (reduced or none) N. x Dyeriana or N. northiana (flared).
 
  • #10
so a strong curve without a loop is still lower (intermediate), and it must loop to be an upper, right?
 
  • #11
It doesn't have to be a roller coaster loop, but it will twist and turn a lot. Once my plants make a good example of that I'll post it.

For proof, check pages 38 ,252, and 258 of The Savage Garden. All of these have pics of upper pitchers with tendrils that do not make a full loop.
 
  • #12
Pretty much, but a real upper is designated, not only by the tendril loop, but by the peristome regression, or augmentation of it, and the tendril attachment, which is usually at the back bottom of the pitcher.
 
  • #13
another Q.

is the pitcher the auctual leaf, and the leaf blade part of the petiole?
 
  • #15
That is true with Dionaea but I'm not sure about Nepenthes. There are some plants (grapefruits, I believe. Maybe it's figs) that have a leaf which shrinks to nothing but a rib and then broadens again. It is not as dramatic as Nepenthes, which have long tendrils, but still. Nepenthes leaves are far more leaf-like than those of Dionaea.

-D. Lybrand
 
  • #16
Technically if you want to be nitty gritty about it, the actual physical leaf we humans name on a Nepenthes is the leaf petiole, the tendril is a special appendage and the actual true leaf is the pitcher itself. Associating a Nepenthes petiole with a Dionaea petiole is a fairly good comparison.
 
  • #17
gotcha
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