FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

When I got started growing CPs, I bought a bunch of grow your own boxes from Lowes. Now I have a big pot of generic green pitcher plants that I'm not too proud of. Anyway, there is a very strange mimic among them. It doesn't grow pitchers, just long flat lime green pointy leathery leaves. It does send up long flower stalks, but at the end of them are strange pine cone type things, not flowers. No doubt it is a weed of some sort. Or is it a throwback? I have read strange tales that CPs can exhibit weird vestigial phenotypes from their evolutionary past. Does anyone know what it is?

Sounds like you got a ringer.
Could you post a photo?

mouthstofeed wrote:When I got started growing CPs, I bought a bunch of grow your own boxes from Lowes. Now I have a big pot of generic green pitcher plants that I'm not too proud of. Anyway, there is a very strange mimic among them. It doesn't grow pitchers, just long flat lime green pointy leathery leaves. It does send up long flower stalks, but at the end of them are strange pine cone type things, not flowers. No doubt it is a weed of some sort. Or is it a throwback? I have read strange tales that CPs can exhibit weird vestigial phenotypes from their evolutionary past. Does anyone know what it is?

It's a Venusian Flash Back.
How much sunlight do they get? I am pretty sure those are s. Purpura x Catesbaei pitcher plants.

Shadowtski wrote:Sounds like you got a ringer.
Could you post a photo?

Could be but I'm not so sure. The Lowes supplier seems clueless but not nefarious. Probably didn't know what they were selling.

[/quote]
It's a Venusian Flash Back.
How much sunlight do they get? I am pretty sure those are s. Purpura x Catesbaei pitcher plants.[/quote]

Maybe it is, maybe it is. I can imagine that it is, and say that I have the only one in the world.

It's definitely not a low-light grown plant. It's out in full sun all day and has exhibited the same form for two years in a row. This is its true form.

Are the leaves coming out of the same rhizome of the other pitchers? Looks like some iris or something got in there, to me.

Well I can honestly say I have no idea what they are. They are not ugly. They seem to be happy

Benurmanii wrote:Are the leaves coming out of the same rhizome of the other pitchers? Looks like some iris or something got in there, to me.

No, I had a lot of rhizome pieces and put them all into the same pot, so this is coming from its own rhizome.

Except for the blooms, little pine cones with tiny yellow flowers, I would agree with you. Their leaves look like irises.

FlyTrap Hunter wrote:Well I can honestly say I have no idea what they are. They are not ugly. They seem to be happy

Indeed! They are very vibrant, and are super vigorous this year. Moreso than the pitchers.

They look like the crazy things I got. They are cool looking. I hope mine grow pitchers.

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it does look like an iris plant. Try to dig it up and see what the root looks like.

omnipercp15 wrote:it does look like an iris plant. Try to dig it up and see what the root looks like.

Yep, like an iris's roots. Lateral and rooty.

The mystery plant today.

The picture is too blurry. I can't tell what it is. Looks like little Pine cones on something green.
Onion plant?

FlyTrap Hunter wrote:The picture is too blurry. I can't tell what it is. Looks like little Pine cones on something green.
Onion plant?

Onion? Hmm, sounds interesting. Oh well, i will get some better pictures of the plant and some close ups of their flower pods.

Are all pics in this thread the same plant?

Hard to tell from the most recent pic, but looking at the previous pics of the plant in the bowl planter, i'm 95% sure it's a rubra.

Pitcher shape is definitely rubra-esque, possibly alata, but the clumping growth is more consistent with rubra. Rubras also have red flowers, whereas alatas are yellow/whitish.

Also, if this is one of those Bug Biting Plants dormant rhizome kits from Lowes, I know those have included both rubras and purpureas before. That's definitely not a purp.