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U. alpina

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sarracenialuver

Hello,
The other day I noticed on the end of 2 of my U. alpina leaves...there are another set of smaller leaves growing from the tip! Is this normal? I would post a pic, but my digi cant get a good close up. Thanks,
Kevin
 
Hello Kevin,

Do not worry. Yes it is normal. This plant reproduces in many ways. It is a wonder. I have 1-2" and on 1-4" pot filled with this plant. Wait til you see what is happening below the soil.
 
Hello,
    Thanks both of you! Rose, it is the plant you sent me, and its outta control! Its in a 4 inch pot with living sphagnum, and its takeing over. I now have all these small pockets of alpina everywhere. I also took a very small plant that had some traps on it, and used in it biology class under a microscope! It was awesome! Thanks,
                               Kevin
 
Hmmmm, my U. alpina is quite a slow-growing plant, and I have never had it bud from the leaves.

Is it possible that you have a misidentified plant? Can you see flowers or tubers on your plant?
 
Hello,
Dode, there are 2 tubers on my plant, but no flowers. the leaves are only 2-3 inches tall. When I first got it, there was an explosion of growth.Now it seemed to slow down a little. But new pockets of growth are turning up in the pot.
Kevin
 
My U. alpina is growing very rapidly in LFS and housed in my highland Nepenthes terrarium (days 70-80*F nights 45-55*F). It's growing over, out and through the pot with a lot of stolons. How do I get it to flower? I've tried lightly fertilizng with urea free orchid fertilizers (bloom formula) for a while now and moving it closer to the light this produced plenty of growth but no blooms. Does it need to be larger and more Pot bound than a 4" pot? Perhaps repotting it will trigger flowering. I know this happens with many terrestrials that I have had in the past.

I've noticed most of my other Utrics will only flower when totally rootbound (or whatever you wanna call it) and this one definately packed in there. Does it need a warmer environment to trigger flowering? I could move it to my intermediate Nep chamber (75-85*F days 60-65*F nights). I have the same questions about U humboldtii which I have a big clump of too. U. nelubifolia however has only made 2 stolons in almost a year!
 
Hey,
Josh, I got mine not to long ago, an dhasn't flowered, but I keep mine in my highalnd terrarium. Heres a pic:
kevinualpina.JPG

Thanks to Adnedarn for hosting it for me!! If you look on on e of the leaves to the left, you can see what i was talking about, the double leaf on the tip, and numerous plantlets showing up in the pot. Thanks,
Kevin
 
How long is the largest leaf? That almost looks as though it could be a U.longifolia (it resembles my plant anyways). Do the leaves unfurl, or do they seem to just grow bigger (ie. swell) If they unfurl it is U.alpina.

 Just a thought,

Cole
smile.gif
 
My alpina came from the same source as sarracenialuver. It appears different from my longifolia in that it produces plantlets from the tip of the leaves.

Flowers of longifolia varies from white to purple etc.

What was the original source for this plant? I have heard that longifolia has been sold under the name alpina...
 
Ummmm.... a couple days ago I potted up a U. longifolia plantlet that had formed on the end of a leaf. This was the first time it had done so, so I'm not sure if this is a regular occurence, or freak accident.

SF
 
The Alpina I have has only made a tip plantlet once, when it was root bound.  The longest leaf is a little less than seven inches in length.  My longifolia has not developed leaves that long yet as of yet.

My alpina has also developed suspended plantlets (best I can call them)  I had found information that the alpina did this, but I have not been able to relocate the information.

Here are some pictures
alpinalongifolia.jpg

alpina (larger) longifolia (smaller)
ualpina.jpg

alpina

The longifolia has not been with me long. The alpina came from purplesundew with other plants. I have yet not had reason to doubt her plants. The rest appear to be what she said they were. I believe that I am going to refrain from sending out future plants for now. Whatever plants I do send out will either have flowered or go with an explanation that they have not. I am creating confusion and do not wish to do so. I have even had plants that I purchased from plant dealers, with name tags, questioned. I have come to the conclusion that nothing can be taken as a surety until it flowers.
 
All of the pictures posted so far look like U. longifolia to me, but don't rely on my diagnosis. It shouldn't be too hard to tell the two apart.

U. alpina should have leaves that have a petiole (leaf stalk) a few cm long, U. longifolia will just taper down to a point where it attaches to the stolon. If you look at how the leaves grow, the alpina's leaves should unfurl like a fern - the top of the leaf will be curled into a tight tube about 1-2mm wide, and will unwind as the leaf grows. U. longifolia's leaves will start as a small leaf that expands in all directions until it reaches full size.

Here is a picture of the leaves on my U. alpina. It's pretty pot bound, and you can see a tuber poking out of the medium:

alpinaleaves.jpg
 
Dode,

My 'plant that came as alpina' has lots of tubers. Does the longifolia also have tubers? Mine does not, but it is small and I have not had it long.
 
Hey,
Im fairly new at utrics, and was wondering if you could tell the difference between the traps and/or stems? Like, say my 'alpina' has a white color to them, and 'longifolia' has a greenish color to them? Rose, I dont think longifolia has tubers from what I'ved heard. Thanks,
Kevin
 
I was under the impression that longifolia did not and the 'plant that came as alpina' deffinately does have tubers.  You said your was showing tubers as well?

My alpina also has short leaf stalks (decending to a point). There are a few showing in the picture. I had just moved this plant to the larger pot a couple of weeks ago and a lot of the stalks that were showing are buried now.
 
Rose,
Yea, my plant has 1 or 2 small tubers. I just transplanted it to a clear plastic case like thing, so i could see whats going on beneath the soil
laugh.gif
, thanks,
Kevin
 
The traps are wuite a bit different as well, but you would need to look at them at about 20x magnification.

The leaf is going to be the easiest way, if baby leaves look like small versions of adult leaves it is probably U. longifolila. If they are curled up and unroll into adult leaves it is U. alpina or a related species.

U. longifolia is not supposed to have tubers. What do the tubers you are seeing look like?
 
I agree, the images I've seen except for Dodecs image look like U. longifolia. I've been sold U. longifolia as U. alpina countless times. I have a nice sized rootbound pot of the real deal growing in my highland chamber now but I had to import it from Germany to finally get the real plant correctly IDd. The leaves of U. alpina are angular/diamond shaped when fully expanded: -<>. When alpina leaves are small they resemble a "Y" shape and unroll from the top as they grow/expand. they then turn very thick and leathery with definate veins.

U. longifolias leaves are more "oblong" with a less pointed more club shaped leaf tip that does not start out as a "Y" but looking just like a very small adult leaf. Veins on U. longifolia are not so well defined and the leaves are quite thin and flimsy.

Dodec asked a good question: What shape are the tubers on your plants?
 
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