Wiered Nep.

[DerbyCityNeps]

YAY! new nep. either Ventrata or Ventricosa i cant tell. its young and im guessing from TC. the baby leaves and pitchers are still on there(but dead) so im guessing its not a cutting. anywho there are alreayd 2 growth points. is that normal in a plant so young? the biggest pitcher is only about 2 1/2 inches tall.
alex

 

[swords]

Likely a cutting or section of basal rhizome, if the baby pitchers are on there but the newest pitcher is already 2 1/2" it's been removed from a large plant and has the fast growth abilities that only divisions from a large plant has.

Basal shoots can increase exponentially in size with each new leaf (once roots have established) when removed from the mother plant. Cuttings on the other hand that sprout from dormant nodes along the stem are quite similar in rapid growth. The dormant node begins as a pseudoleaf (sometimes several) then a real Nepenthes leaf with a tendril and pitcher which often won't form but will on the next leaf which is a good deal larger and so on until the leaves are the size they were on the mother plant when the division was done in a far shorter time than when grown from a seedling or TC plantlet. This is due to the stored starches in the stem of the cutting feeding the tiny meristem far more than it needs and growth is greatly accellerated. Once several new leaves have grown on a stem cutting it is wise to remove the leaf that was used to root the cutting as it can be a pest attractant. This will make a cutting look just like a new seedling but it grows far more rapidly -and with neps that's a GOOD thing!