FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I am thinking of getting a few of these guys from Hawaiian Botanicals and have a few questions before or if I proceed with ordering. Is Nepenthes Alata a natural occurring species or a Hybrid? Can I hang them from my ceiling inside my house? Can I hang them outside? Or do they have to be kept in a green house with lots of humidity? How big will the Pitchers get? To give you an idea of my climate. I am about 35-40 mins South of Vancouver in the lower mainland Fraser Valley area.

http://www.hawaiianbotanicals.com/nepenthes.html http://www.hawaiianbotanicals.com/image ... /alata.jpg

Any response would be appreciated.

In case I can't get them from there, is there any U.S website that I could order from that will ship to Canada and only require a Phytosanitary cert?

Thanks!

Jonathan

The true N. alata is a pure species; however, it does not appear to be very common in cultivation. Most of the plants that are sold as "N. alata" are actually a hybrid that is commonly called N. "ventrata". There is overwhelmingly strong evidence to suggest that this commonly distributed hybrid is actually a hybrid between N. graciliflora and N. ventricosa and NOT N. alata and N. ventricosa as thought previously, but that's opening up a whole new can of worms.

The plant that this nursery is selling as N. alata is actually the plant that is commonly called N. "ventrata" - what business a CP store has in selling obviously mislabeled plants, I don't know. Regardless, this hybrid is as tough as nails and is probably the easiest Nepenthes to grow. This particular hybrid does not require high humidity to grow well, and pitchers will usually max out at around 6'' tall. Keep the temperature above 50F and below 90F and you should be good - remember that all Nepenthes require some sort of temperature differential between day and night to grow their best. Either outside when it's warm or a sunny south-facing windowsill will suffice. Keep in mind that these guys will not do well in low-light conditions so more light is better, but just be wary about letting too much direct sun burn the leaves.

Thanks for the info!

Is it a natural Hybrid by any chance? The reason I am asking is, I like naturals and non of this human made crap and is N.Ventricosa also a Hybrid? http://www.hawaiianbotanicals.com/image ... ricosa.jpg

N. "ventrata" is a naturally occurring hybrid in the Philippines, yes.

N. ventricosa is a pure species, as evidenced by the single epithet. There are usually two ways of expressing the name of a plant of hybrid origin - either [species 1 (mother)] x [species 2 (father)], or simply an x preceding the nothospecies name if applicable. For example, the nothospecies name of N. macrophylla x lowii is N. x trusmadiensis, while for N. muluensis x lowii there is not yet an assigned nothospecies name so you are stuck with saying N. muluensis x lowii. There's been a lot of taxonomic argument about how the name N. "ventrata" should be expressed, so I won't get into that.

Keep in mind that the biological concept of a "species" is only a set of parameters fabricated by humans to apply to something that is very fluid and not rigid as we'd like to think. It is very possible (and likely) that a number of Nepenthes species (and species from other genera) are the evolutionary result of stabilized hybrid swarms. Species are merely snapshots of long genetic lines at one stage in the process of evolution.

To answer your question about shipping across international borderlines, you will need the proper phytosanitary certificates as well as the appropriate CITES permits (since all Nepenthes are listed on Appendix II, except for N. rajah and N. khasiana which are on Appendix I). I'm not very familiar with this process, so you might want to contact someone from your country's department of agriculture to get some more specific information.