FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

How awesome would it be to have a cultivar that regularly makes split traps?! This is a “Fang” cultivar making some gnarly looking traps. (Photos are not mine)

There was a cultivar they were selling called "Mirror" that did some wild stuff like that. Traps on both sides etc. I know they were selling some TC on ebay not too long ago. I don't know if theyre still up though. That is an awesome VFT you have, I'm jealous lol

I’ve heard mirror is not stable

I have recently recieved a young mirror from Germany i will keep an eye on its growth characteristics but im guessing its unstable lol. It was a gift so ill just see how it does.

Yeah, and it makes sense. Trap shape is *likely* dictated by phytohormones and miRNA splicing. Online, in some phytojournals, some liken it to sympetaly, which is governed by three genes similar to HOX in animals, as well as a cytokinin/auxin mediated response. This kinda alludes that any double-trap or strange-trap mutations are gonna be hard to fix.

That's just my 'unprofessional' opinion. I'm not sure if in practice it's different.

I second that. Ive also read that "mirror x mirror" is stable and an improvement over "mirror". Also hungry carnivores that does sound like a professional opinion to me very scientific indeed lol.

Basically everything in this thread lines up with my experience. Mirror, while pretty awesome when it does its thing, isn't stable and reverts to a typical flytrap most of the time. Mirror x Mirror was an improvement for sure but still wasn't 100% stable. Thus, I've stopped propagating both plants at this point.