FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Flower from a N. spathulata x platychila. Can anyone ID my plant as male or female? Thanks!

Take a shot after they have opened.

DragonsEye wrote:Take a shot after they have opened.

But I can't wait that long! if the flower is female, I need to start lining up gentlemen callers right NOW! what if the flower shrivels and dies without ever knowing the joys of pollination?

The more almond looking flower buds are female while the chestnut shaped ones are male. I think (but I may be wrong) it may be a male.

Camden wrote:The more almond looking flower buds are female while the chestnut shaped ones are male. I think (but I may be wrong) it may be a male.

Upon closer inspection, it does seem male. Is it worth the hassle of saving pollen? I want to give this guy a haircut. Need to make room to bring other plants indoors.

Well the question now is do you want seeds? If you do, then I would save pollen for a future cross. If not, you can chop off the flower and prune your plant. Collecting nep pollen isn’t too hard, however you’ll be collecting it for a while. Pluck off the flower when its ready, use a paintbrush or something to get the pollen onto a piece of wax paper, and store it in the fridge until more flowers are ready.

Camden wrote:Well the question now is do you want seeds? If you do, then I would save pollen for a future cross. If not, you can chop off the flower and prune your plant. Collecting nep pollen isn’t too hard, however you’ll be collecting it for a while. Pluck off the flower when its ready, use a paintbrush or something to get the pollen onto a piece of wax paper, and store it in the fridge until more flowers are ready.

I don't have any female neps, so if I saved the pollen it would only be if there's some sort of seed bank for nepenthes pollen that might want it. I tried to search for "nepenthes sperm bank" but, uhmmm, apparently people do weird stuff to plants.

elaineo wrote: ↑Fri Oct 20, 2023 8:53 pm

Camden wrote:Well the question now is do you want seeds? If you do, then I would save pollen for a future cross. If not, you can chop off the flower and prune your plant. Collecting nep pollen isn’t too hard, however you’ll be collecting it for a while. Pluck off the flower when its ready, use a paintbrush or something to get the pollen onto a piece of wax paper, and store it in the fridge until more flowers are ready.

I don't have any female neps, so if I saved the pollen it would only be if there's some sort of seed bank for nepenthes pollen that might want it. I tried to search for "nepenthes sperm bank" but, uhmmm, apparently people do weird stuff to plants.

Lol, you can put up a post on here, terraforms, ig, facebook, pretty anywhere with CP’s. I’ve seen some posts on terraforms recently talking about breeding nepenthes. If it were me I would let it flower just in case anyone wants to do a collab with my pollen. I don’t know how much you would care about seeds and/or need more space though. Your call.

It's a girl..??!

Oh, nice! The aim of any nepenthes owner. That is interesting seeing as how the buds were squatty. Nothing is a definite I guess lol.

A nondisruptive gender reveal! Huzzah!

... I hope. No fireworks or glitter bombs or anything that could accidentally damage the neighborhood?

If it was a male, your nose would confirm that as soon as you got anywhere near the plant (i.e., "Did the cat pee in this room?!").

I guess it's too late to get some pollen, huh? Hopefully it'll bloom again next year

Man... I had a male Nepenthes bloom only earlier this year. I cut the flower before it opened because this was its second attempt so I knew it was male and had no females to pollinate with.