N. ventricosa "porcelain form"

[rsivertsen]

Dave Evans took some photos of my "porcelain form" recently and posted them in another forum, but thought they were good enough to post them here as well. They are very slow, growing only one new leaf about every 4 months, and form pitchers only 2 or 3 months during the winter. They're not easy plants to grow, and cuttings don't always take root well either, but they ARE well worth the effort.
These are still small sized plants, and get twice this size easily when fully mature. I have yet to see this plant flower although I've been familiar with them for well over 25 years, and Longwood Gardens has grown them for about 50 years and has never got it to produce a flower either, nor has anyone I know here in the USA. To my knowledge, only Geoff Mansel has got it to produce a female flower.
They will often form tendrils without developing pitchers, then when conditions seem right, they seem to resume growth, develop and open all at once. Notice the peristomes and how different they are from the smaller, southern varieties in Luzon which seem to have spots and some shade of pink to flesh colored pitchers and a very different peristome, and flowers profusely, both males and females.
They are also very stiff, nearly woody, like N. lowii, which is doesn't show in the photographs.
I'm hoping to get full sized mature pitchers from them this season when they resume pitcher formation. - Rich

[shawnintland]

Hi Rich, They looked great on Sam's site and they look great here! But hey, what's with that old tupperware! This beauty deserves a beautiful pot of its own! Glad you mentioned the 'woody-ness" like lowii, even though it looks that way I would have assumed it to be much 'softer'. You can bet I'll be pulling out Stuart's book in a few minutes to read up more on this baby! Do you think it's your cool winter temps that bring on the pitchering or more because of photoperiod?
~Shawn

[rsivertsen]

LOL Shawn,

It's actually some Ziploc storage container, which is the only shallow sized thing I coud find to bury an old 6 inch woody stem sideways in effort to get it to produce more basals; it's just under the LFS and cedar bark mulch. Hopefully, I'll have some cuttings of it next Spring. I find that if the potting media is too deep, the compst starts to rot after some time. These shallow things dry out and drain quicker too.

Not sure if Stewart has this in his book; these plants haven't been found since John Turnbull saw them way back in the early 80's, and that site may not even exist now!

A few others who grow this plant have mentioned that it's growth behavior seems to be fairly constant, even if it's grown under lights at 16 hr photoperiod in their bedroom all year long with the same temps; it grows and produces pitchers for a few months, then suddenly just stops growing, or slows down to a crawl for a few months, refusing to produce pitchers. Then it decides to kick in gear again, and many of the old tendrils resume growth and form pitchers, and some seem to open at the same time. - Rich

[paphioboy]

Wow! That peristome sure is something... Looks almost like it has some platychila in it..

[shawnintland]

Ok, we'll let you slide on the zip-loc...for now! LOL! Good luck on the basals and rooting up those babies. There surely can never be too many of them around! Very weird about the seasonal pitchering, especially if all other things remain constant! Sounds like you'll have some fun experimenting to sort that one out.
On the book front; In Vol. 2, listed under Philippines, Stuart does have Ventricosa but there's no photo of your variety, mostly just various forms of plants from Mt. Mayon. Haven't had time to check Vol. 1 yet.
~Shawn

[rsivertsen]

I plan on meeting Stewart next month in Massachusetts; the New England CP Society is holding a special meeting where he will be a guest speaker! Too bad that my N. ventricosa "porcelain form" is still in a dormant state, and hasn't produced a new leaf, or pitcher in several months! Oh well, at least I'll get to meet with him, and get an autographed copy of both his books!
- Rich

[shawnintland]

Hey, there may well be someone on it already but since there's time I'll mention it anyway; Please see if someone can video tape the presentation for redistribution. We did it in Penang with a talk by Ch'ien Lee and Charles Clarke last November (What ever happened with that guys???? Still haven't heard about it's being ready to distribute!). You are going to love the new books!

[Aliamyz]

Very nice peristome and thanx for the story.I heard that nepenthes only have lifespan of 20 years.How come this one has grew for 50 years?

[Robert]

Originally Posted by rsivertsen

They are also very stiff, nearly woody, like N. lowii, which is doesn't show in the photographs.

right they are stiff and also even when they dried up they remained that way which was good for hanging specimen

[rsivertsen]

Originally Posted by Aliamyz

Very nice peristome and thanx for the story.I heard that nepenthes only have lifespan of 20 years.How come this one has grew for 50 years?

I have a N. dyeriana that was originally created over a hundred years ago. Nepenthes have no finite lifespan, and as long as new cuttings can be taken, and rooted, they can go on forever! This N. ventricosa "porcelain form" may be older still, as it originated from Kew Gardens, perhaps from the very first discovery of the species! Too bad that the location data was lost in WW II when London got bombed by the Nazis. It's also ironic that this plant has been incultivation longer than any other form, yet it is still very rare in collections today. I have never seen it flower. Only Geoff Mansel has been able to get it to flower, although the other forms flower profusely for me. - Rich