N. burbidgeae

[D muscipula]

My new N. burbidgeae has turned red-purple under the bright lights. Is that okay, or should i give it a bit more shade? It seems to be growing well -there's a new, large leaf with a pitcher starting to form on it - but it looks, well... sunburned.

It's on the left:

 

[swords]

Awesome! Leave it there! That color is awesome! The pitchers should be amazing when they start coming if you leave it under lighting such as that. That's what you want to strive for. It is an indication of good lighting levels. The new leaves will probably not be that colorful as the plant will eventually acclimate itself to that intense lighting. The new growth will only be slightly pink but the pitchers will develop faster (if the humidity and temps are right) and be larger than in dimmer light.

I always want my plants to show signs of reddening as this. If you check out most wild photos the plants leaves are "sunburned" in this manner, some rather violently blackened by the sun. However, this is not actual "burning" it is actually a pigmentation called anthocyanin (if I recall correctly) and is produced by the plant to protect itself from intense light. like Nepenthes slf produced sunblock. Some plants (N. northiana and N. eustachya) produce a thick waxy coating instead of the leaf pigment and still in others only the vine and tendrils will redden (or turn black like N. hamata) in intense light.
Anyways, plants with such indicatrs of intense lighting growth will (in good humidity) have very large and colorful pitchers. Leave it there, you'll be glad ya did!

 

[neps]

Yes, it's sunburned. I would try to reduce the light intensity a bit.

 

[joseph]

I have to agree with swords. I have a couple of plants that are the same color and they do fine. If it grows well then it is happy.

Joe

 

[schloaty]

WOW. That color is awsome. My merri started to get nice and red like that when I moved it closer to the light. It's also starting to grow much faster now that it has better lighting, and the pitchers are a bit larger.

 

[agustinfranco]

Dear all:

One thing i don't understand is why his burbidgeae is turning red while the rest of the plants remain green. If they are subjected to the same amount of light, then why the other neps are not red at all!!.


gus

 

[fly-catchers]

Quote[/b] (agustinfranco @ Oct. 24 2003,06:25)]Dear all:

One thing i don't understand is why his  is turning red while the rest of the plants remain green. If they are subjected to the same amount of light, then why the other neps are not red at all!!.


gus

Hi
I find that the N. burbidgeae seems to have a red hue to its leaves which gradually goes as the leaf gets older. Some of my plants are in a fairly shaded area of my house but still have this nice red colouration. Certainly nothing to worry about  

It remains one of my all time favorite Neps  

cheers

bill

 

[nepenthes gracilis]

Hmm my reply must have been deleted in the forum upgrade....oh well

 

[Steve L]

What type of light are you using? Like others have said, burbs do tend to be a bit reder then some other Nep species, so that accounts for the difference between plants. I would be surprised to see a nep in too much artificial light unless you are using HID. I would have to agree that it should stay where it is...

 

[D muscipula]

This seems to be a bit more controversial than i had expected.  Hopefully i just got a very colorful burbidgeae, and that's why it's become so red. I'll have to look back at the photos i took when i potted it up and see what it looked like when i got it. It may have been reddish already.

The lights are visible here:

Just two shoplights with T8 bulbs.

 

[swords]

Gus, some plants are more colorful than others, my coccinea is pink in bright light, my rajahs leaves are green with red stripes on either side of the leaves. Each plant reacts differently to bright light and in time (usually as lights wear out and/or the plant acclimates to the lighting intensity) the leaves do not color up as much. Which explains why his other plants are not showing light pigmentation. As I said before, all my plants look red when they first arrive because they are not accustomed to my conditions but as my photos showed the other day, overall most go back to basically green when they have settled in.

 

[agustinfranco]

thanks for the explanation Swords. It was very helpful

Gus

 

[D muscipula]

Here are some new photos of it. It has developed its first pitcher, so i think it is healthy, in spite of the sunburn. I really like this color: i hope it doesn't fade with time!