Nepenthes gracilis? Or nep........???

[Aliamyz]

Originally Posted by David

Aliamyz,

N. xventrata is alata x vintricosa and not (alata x (ventricosa x alata). The "x" infront of "ventrata" indicates that it is a hybrid.

And the picture that edward post is xventrata, ie. alata x ventricosa. I have a very reliable source to confirm this.

Also Edawrd,

xventratas will loose it's beautiful reddish colours on the pitchers when grown in lowland conditions after a while. Not only that the pitchers will get smaller a little. These plants are grown in the highlands and has been brought down to the nursery where you bought it quite recently. That's why it is reddish but it would be more reddish if it is new stocks from the highland. You can see on the right side of the picture. The newest pitcher has a slight greenish bottom and smaller as it grew in lowland conditions.

David,

I got my answer from here.xVentrata is actually alata x (ventricosa x alata).

I think you guys are wrong about the colour of xVentrata.I just grew out one cutting of xVentrata to experiment it.From what i see the cutting is now producing bigger and reddish pitchers.The pitcher is tough too not like the one grown in nurseries.

Thanx!

[edwardyeeks]

Any pictures of your VIGOROUS AND STRONG ventrata?

Cheers

[rsivertsen]

Actually, many, if not most of the so called N. ventricosa in cultivation are in my opinion a hybrid population of N. ventrata, some leaning more towards N. alata, such as this one, and others more towards N. ventricosa. It's a very complex hybrid population, with back crosses, resulting in a spectrum of various traits. There are several differences with them and the true species, (which is very rare in cultivation), the size of the plant, easily twice the size of these hybrid population, I've had pitchers from 8 to 12 inches in length, with 14 inch leaves and very ridged, and stiff, almost woody pitchers (like N. lowii), much more ventricose (hence the name) also much like N. lowii, and generally has no red spots, (just like N. bicalcarata), it is either all green, or turns a blood red without any spots. The pitchers are very waxy and have absolutely no trace of any wings. The leaves are also very long and lanceolate, and are also rather stiff. Another important difference is in the peristome which is very wide, with many points, and nearly horizontal, without coming together, and riding up towards the lid. One other important difference is that this true species N. ventricosa is a true highland plant, grows best under cool conditions, and grows very slowly, very rarely flowers, and can even tolerate a mild frost, the hybrid populations plants are all lowland plants and most seem to do better in warmer conditions, and cannot tolerate any frost, and grows moderately fast and flowers easily.
One clone of this goes by "porcelain clone" and here's a picture:

[Aliamyz]

Do anyone sells this ventricosa?Love to have one...remainds me of platychila

[rsivertsen]

Good question, not sure if anyone sells this plant, but myself, and a few other people have it; I originally got it from Longwood Gardens many years ago. Again, it's very slow growing, hardly ever produces flower spikes, and doesn't like warm/hot temps. - Rich

[edwardyeeks]

Hmmm......I am attracted to this plant. Perhaps I can find out more about it.

Cheers

[arvin555]

Aliam, thanks for the link, I visited it and I think you misunderstood, unless I did.

1. It says "He also developed the ubiquitous 'alata' hybrid you see at the hardware stores. While we refer to it as a ventrata hybrid (N. ventricosa x alata), it is technically N. alata x (ventricosa x alata)."

Which means that the plant he was referring to is a "Ventrata hybrid" which means a hybrid of a hybrid. Too bad he did not give us the commercial name because that is exactly what I asked in my post, what is the name of such a ventrata hybrid.

Anyways what I mean is that it is safe to say that Ventrata is still (Ventricosa x alata) and the Ventrata hybrid that was referred is AlataxVentrata.

I myself have a Ventrata from Japan. It makes very tiny pitchers and frankly some of my pure alatas give much more red color. I do like the Ventrata because it has cute pitchers. I also notice though that the pitchers are more like an Alata, which means they do not last that long as a Ventricosa pitcher. So maybe I have one of those different variation. Mind you my Ventrata was just IDed by members because the store only tagged it as "Nepenthes sp." cool eh? So vague!

TTFN
Arvin

[edwardyeeks]

Wow......sometiemes it makes me wonder, whether anyone has made the most complex hybrid of any CPs. Never mind......

Cheers

[kentosaurs]

Hi Ed

Um well i've seen some really complex hybrid.........Some has more than 6-7 crosses..

Ken

[rsivertsen]

According to my earlier contacts in Japan, who visited these sites a few times back in the 1980's, there are several populations in southern Luzon where N. ventrata and N. alata grow sympatric, or in close proximity, and retrogressive hybrids are very common, in fact so common, that it is nearly impossible to find a true species in some places, even of N. alata!

This plant may have been the result of a deliberate backcross of a N. ventrata with a N. alata, but it's still lumped into the N. ventrata complex by most experts. - Rich