Flowering nepenthes

[SnowyFalcon]

Dyflam's post sparked my interest, so I figured I'd post this question and see what kind of answers people had. About how large does the climbing stem of a Nepenthes have to be before it flowers? Is there a set height, is it dependent on age or..... What's the deal with Nepenthes flowers?

 

[swords]

As far as I know, nobody really knows what causes a Nepenthes to flower. It may be after a short period of controlled drought, it may be length/age of vine, it may be after a large quantity of prey has been digested at relatively the same time, an increase in light levels... it may be all of these together, it may be different for each species.

Since it's not really known what exactly triggers Nepenthes to flower it is always an event when anyone flowers one in cultivation and people always ask "how did you do it, what did you do to get it to flower?" and the growers many times say "nothing that I know of".

 

[Joachim Danz]

Hi,

Nepenthes flowering is triggered by daylength.

Sometimes also plants might flower when severely shocked (and being afraid to die).

Joachim

 

[swords]

Is that the natural way that they flower?

I wonder, coming from the tropics with a relatively stable photoperiod throughout the year. Could this be an artifact of temperate cultivation where there is a marked increase and decrease of photoperiod throught the year? For many of the other plants of the sarawak forests flowering and setting fruit is initiated during intermittent periods of drought and abundance of rain.