N. inermis?

[Heli]

Tony, do you have any pics of the end of the leaf where the tendril starts? Mine seems to come down slightly, like with Paul's.

 

[swords]

Yep bright lighting will add color flushes but no spots.

Here's one of my juvenile N. inermis under my new 10K T5HO lamps:

The other inermis juvenile:

I have a seedling or two but they are too tiny to bother photoing.

 

[Whimgrinder]

Juvenile N. inermis will sometimes get a little reddish flush but that's it. No spots or speckles.

Thank you Tony (and Dex) for that. Clearly the pitcher shape is also a bit odd to be inermis, coupled with the distinct red spotting. I've sent Dean an email to ask for more info about the plant's origin. I don't mind if it turns out to be an inermis hybrid, since surely that would be quite amazing also!

Paul

Edit: another snapshot (iPhonery), taken moments ago. There is nothing "flat" about that pitcher shape in my eyes.

 

[Dexenthes]

Wait wait wait, don't email him until I can get my hands on one.

 

[Heli]

they sold out...

 

[Dexenthes]

Of course... it's okay anyway, I don't have enough space or money for an inermis let alone a x pyriformis, if that is what these actually are.

 

[Heli]

There is also some talk that it is inermis x singalana. I also started a thread on proboards http://pitcherplants.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=id&action=display&thread=11060

 

[Dexenthes]

Obviously it's too early to tell but I don't think it's that cross.

Keep in mind that cross has already been made:

It would seem that even at a relatively small size the pitchers of that cross display a prominent waistline and some amount of ribbing in the peristome. Not to mention the color is somewhat dark.

 

[Heli]

Yea I agree, it seems to resemble pyriformis more.

 

[Whimgrinder]

Personally, I think it is very premature to speculate too much about its identity.....

 

[Dexenthes]

Personally, I think it is very premature to speculate too much about its identity.....

With Nepenthes, it's never too early to speculate.

Also luckily in this case N. inermis has such a distinct morphology that speculation of any kind is made a lot easier.

 

[Whimgrinder]

Update: I received a response from Dean on the origin of the plants he has been distributing as N. inermis, and this is what he had to add to the discussion: "the locational data is talang mt. around 1300m asl So it seems to reason that talangensis is in the neighborhood. There are more colored ones out there*, it will be a bit until they grow out enough for me to offer them."

* meaning that he has identified other colored/spotted plants among the plants he has raised. (he grew these from seed that was, I presume, sent to him to culture.)

I am more than a little bit excited at the prospect of having a seed grown N. pyriformis now! (not wanting to count the proverbial chicken before it hatcheth, of course, but one can hope) Imagine a plant like the one illustrated in wikipedia:

 

[Heli]

@Whim, also these would be some of the first x pyriformis in cultivation so it is pretty exciting.

 

[Dexenthes]

So I am doing some research on Mt. Talang, and it would appear there are some other possible fathers out there, so the careful speculation and observation of these plants is far from over.

Other plants that live on Mt. Talang at around that same elevation:

N. bongso

N. pectinata

and possibly N. spathulata, though I haven't been able to figure whether it lives within just the Sulasih Talang Nature Reserve or on the actual mountain itself, or if there is any actual difference between those two things.

 

[Heli]

I dont think pectinata is known to hybridize with inermis.

 

[Dexenthes]

I dont think pectinata is known to hybridize with inermis.

It's not known, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible!

 

[Heli]

Yea true. However I dont think that it is the father, doesn't appear to have similar traits as our inermis x (mystery)

 

[Dexenthes]

Actually out of those three I listed I think N. talangensis and N. pectinata have the highest similarity.

 

[Heli]

The reason I dont think pectinata is the father because it's leaves are around the same width of inermis's leaves if not wider. Our plants seem to have narrower leaves than normal inermis so the father would need to have narrow leaves, which talangensis has.

here is a good example of the leaves (These arent my pics, I just found them on the interwebs)
N. pectinata:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a117/ma_suska/sumatramaret2007/pecIMGP0619_resize.jpg
N. talangensis:
http://home.arcor.de/j.danz/N_talangensis_plant.jpg
N. inermis:
http://cpforums.org/gallery/d/36139-2/N_+inermis+2.jpg
mystery plant:
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd379/cuddlycobalt/P1150114.jpg

IMO the leaves on the mystery plant really resemble the talangensis leaves.

 

[Whimgrinder]

It's not known, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible!

Frankly, I'm not going to get too "married" to any one possibility for at least a year, at which point we can start to say we have some meaningful data to compare. In many ways, any juvenile pitcher looks a lot like any other, especially at this stage of growth.