N. lavicola

[Joachim Danz]

Hi,

another one I would be interested in the comments of the experts. The plant pictured below is a N. lavicola I got last year. It does not match the pictures of N. lavicola from its natural habit I have seen so far with one exception. The left pitcher on the photo of upper N. lavicola pitchers from Heiko Rischer seems to be the same species ( http://www.schwaben.de/home/schmidt/nepenthes/lavicola.htm ).

The most unusual about this plant is the red colouration of the leafes and the oversized pitcher lid.

From my point of view all N. lavicola plants in cultivation doesn't seem to match the type description well. I do think this also applies to the plants Tony, Jeff and myself do show on our homepages. They might be from the same source of course.

Joachim

 

[Andenes]

Beautiful plant man!

It's awesome! I've never seen a nepenthes like that! I mean with that red coloration and all. I also agree with you about the plant's apearence campared to the wild ones. Strange huh?

Anyways, how much did it cost you?

Is it a lowland or highland? I'm interested on getting one

sincerely,
erick

 

[Tony Paroubek]

It's pretty much highland Erick.. and not one of those highlands that swings into lowland conditions and is happy with it ;<  I have some pictures coming too... the one on the website is fairly old and of a pretty small plant.  I have clones from 3 different sources but I can not say if they are the same or not.  I suspect they are different since there seems to be some minor variation.  One thing I find interesting, the various descriptions I have read all seem to say very variable in coloring.  Especially since it has in the past been lumped with N. singalana and N. spectabilis leads me to believe there is some confusion with the species.  It is different to me and all the different plants I have look similar and distinct from N. singalana and N. spectabilis.  They look like the picture on page 154 in Nepenthes of Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia by Charles Clarke.  I have not seen any in cultivation which show that greyish color that you often see in pictures from the wild.  Perhaps this is just an unusual color form and we are all growing the more typical one.

These two pictures are from a couple plants I obtained from Australia.

This plant is about 20cm across with pitchers 10cm tall pitchers

This plant is about 12cm across with 6cm tall pitchers

Tony

Edit:
Might as well link the young plant from Germany which is probably the same clone your growing Joachim. Your plant has more red color and your pitchers appear to have more color. I am guessing your plant is getting more light than mine.

 

[Joachim Danz]

Hi Tony,

many thanks for sharing these nice pics of your plants! The plant I tried to refer to as being from Andreas is this one:

This plant grows under identical light conditions as the one from above but doesn't get that red colouration. So I believe the colouration is more a question of which clone one grows. Judging from your pictures I won't think I would be able to supply higher light levels than you do...

The lower pitcher shown by Clarke might be somewhat atypical with the bright red peristome. Andreas and Heiko did state in their description (CPN 1996, Vol.24, Nr. 4, p. 106): The colour of the peristome is 'yellowish green, sometimes with red colour stripes'. N. lavicola seems to be a very variable species. The lower pitcher shown at the CPN article cited does look considerable different from the one in Clarke's book and also the ones shown here. Especially the shape and width of the peristome of this pitcher is different.

Although quite old with a stem more than 10cm long the red plant shown above stays quite small. The rosette diameter is about 8cm and pitchers are less than 5cm high. I have not seen a plant similar to this one for sale up to now and I suspect it being available through TC.

Joachim

P.S.: Forgot to mention that both of my plants grew quit well during summer with night time temperatures around 16-17deg. typical. It might be lower temperatures are necessary for larger plants. Jeff did mention such a behaviour for N. villosa.

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Hi Joachim,

Oops my bad... I should have stated I thought that the plants I grew looked like the picture in the book except for the red peristome. I agree that in almost all other pictures and descriptions I am aware of, greenish yellow with some red striping seems to be typical. The one plant I have from Exotica is the only one that displays this red colored peristome. This could be partly due to age and size as is often the case with peristome developement in Nepenthes, but I think here it is not likely.

The second picture you posted matches my clone from Andreas. I don't have the CPN you mention so I can't compare to that picture and type description. Reading through the description in Charles Clarkes book, the plants I have seem to fit. I agree they do appear different than other pictures from plants in habitat in many cases, but not all. Here is another picture which shows a lower pitcher much like the ones I grow with respect to shape and coloring (except for the peristome) Picture.

They do appear to be fairly rugged plants. My summer night temperatures on average are in the 15-17 celsius range, some cooler some warmer. They seem to do better for me when they are cooler though. I was however trying to disuade Erick as I feel he will have trouble in his locale unless he can cool them artificially.
Tony