The 7th plant and its ID
Visitors to the recent Penang Flora Fest were aware that there were 7 pots of heliamphoras for sale. They were gone in a flash.
Just who got the 7th plant. Well thanks to David I got one of the plants for sale. The moment David saw the plants, he telephoned me. He told me they were big. Boy compared to the other helias I have, they are giant.
Okay, so what is the ID of the plant.
That should not be very hard. Unlike nepenthes and droseras, there are only about 15 known heliamphoras around. The most commonly sold (or rather the cheapest) species ar N. minor and H. nutans.
It also happened that I bought Stewart McPherson book, "Pither Plants of the Americas".
From the book, I can see that the plants that were sold have the shape of H. nutans. But in the description of the species, Stewart did warn that:
"The overwhelming majority of the H. nutans plants grown in cultivation are actually either hybrids with H. glabra or artificial crossbreed produced by horticulturists."
A cross-check on H. glabra description, Stewart, had this to say:
"The nectar spoon lid is helmet shaped and has a distinctive knob-like bulge at its apex which is consistently present. This feature is also reliably inherited in H glabra x nutans hybrids."
So, owners of these plants take note. The plants you are having are H glabra x nutans hybrid.
Happy growing.
Choong
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