Kevin1861
Carnivorous Plant Addict
Forget blacklight posters! I wish we had neps when I was a kid! Hey, old folk, can you imagine how cool it would have been if you had that plant lit up when people came over to bum around? What a gorgeous pic!!!
My growing collection of neps
- Thread starter Ertiocx
- Start date
Ertiocx
Carnivorous Plant Addict
This one's been stumping me for a while. It's some random seedling Nepenthes that hitched in with a pot from Willy's TLC box.
Looks like it's currently variegated, but who knows if it'll revert to green or go fully achlorophyllous.
Feel free to chime in with possible IDs. I haven't a clue.
Platychila x mollis CK's first pitcher since receipt:
Looks like it's currently variegated, but who knows if it'll revert to green or go fully achlorophyllous.
Feel free to chime in with possible IDs. I haven't a clue.
Platychila x mollis CK's first pitcher since receipt:
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Ertiocx
Carnivorous Plant Addict
Several neps are making good progress. I think I have my growing conditions mostly figured out now.
I'm able to get a pretty good temperature drop at night by directing cold air from a floor vent into my shelf with a couple fans.
BE-4099 villosa x hamata
Latest pitcher just popped, bigger and toothier than ever.
hamata x edwardsiana AW13
Its most recent pitcher is just starting to open. It's also the largest yet. It should be fully opened in a couple days.
BE-3225 villosa
Just received this today. It's tiny but looks healthy.
I'm able to get a pretty good temperature drop at night by directing cold air from a floor vent into my shelf with a couple fans.
BE-4099 villosa x hamata
Latest pitcher just popped, bigger and toothier than ever.
hamata x edwardsiana AW13
Its most recent pitcher is just starting to open. It's also the largest yet. It should be fully opened in a couple days.
BE-3225 villosa
Just received this today. It's tiny but looks healthy.
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Ertiocx
Carnivorous Plant Addict
I picked up a bunch of wifi thermometers to track what was happening in different areas of my shelf.
Data from the first 24h of tracking shows how big of a role evaporative cooling seems to be playing in dropping the temperatures at night when I have fans running and dry air blowing in from the floor vents.
Also, N. truncata has made its biggest pitcher yet.
Data from the first 24h of tracking shows how big of a role evaporative cooling seems to be playing in dropping the temperatures at night when I have fans running and dry air blowing in from the floor vents.
Also, N. truncata has made its biggest pitcher yet.
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Ertiocx
Carnivorous Plant Addict
Pretty neat. My plants are on an open shelf so while I don't have to worry about trapped heat, I do need to run the misters all day to keep humidity above ambient. This also helps reduce watering needs.
The evaporative cooling was an originally an unintended side effect but it's very convenient so I set up fans and air guides to maximize the effect. Without the misting and fans, the central air conditioning would only drop my shelf to around 20 C.
Ertiocx
Carnivorous Plant Addict
Couple fresh pitchers:
trusmadiensis AW01:
This was received 2023-05-18 and has just grown its first pitcher. It's not fully open but already looks great.
BE-4544 aristolochioides:
Received 2023-04-28. This has grown several pitchers over the last 3 months but they were all very small. Only this latest pitcher is larger than the ones it came with.
BE-4033 veitchii colouring up after opening:
villosa x hamata pitcher continuing to grow:
The plant is filling out nicely with 3 pitchers and two more on the way.
trusmadiensis AW01:
This was received 2023-05-18 and has just grown its first pitcher. It's not fully open but already looks great.
BE-4544 aristolochioides:
Received 2023-04-28. This has grown several pitchers over the last 3 months but they were all very small. Only this latest pitcher is larger than the ones it came with.
BE-4033 veitchii colouring up after opening:
villosa x hamata pitcher continuing to grow:
The plant is filling out nicely with 3 pitchers and two more on the way.
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Ertiocx
Carnivorous Plant Addict
This is a trichome from the upper surface of a N. truncata leaf:
These trichomes are made of layers of cellulose fibrils which give them birefringent properties. We can see this using polarized light microscopy with a pair of crossed polarizing plates:
Here the light source is polarized north-south and the analyzer is oriented east-west. Normally the polarized light is blocked by the analyzer, but the trichome hairs oriented at around 45 degrees rotate the polarized light enough that the resulting beam of light can pass through the analyzer and are visible. The hairs oriented closer to the north-south axis are dark since they do not rotate the polarized light enough to pass the analyzer.
These trichomes are made of layers of cellulose fibrils which give them birefringent properties. We can see this using polarized light microscopy with a pair of crossed polarizing plates:
Here the light source is polarized north-south and the analyzer is oriented east-west. Normally the polarized light is blocked by the analyzer, but the trichome hairs oriented at around 45 degrees rotate the polarized light enough that the resulting beam of light can pass through the analyzer and are visible. The hairs oriented closer to the north-south axis are dark since they do not rotate the polarized light enough to pass the analyzer.
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Ertiocx
Carnivorous Plant Addict
I previously made a couple videos showing spiral fibers being pulled from nepenthes leaves:
These fibers are also present whenever I section a leaf to look at under the microscope (arrow).
The fibers are made of cellulose so they're birefringent and easily seen with polarized light:
It's hard to tell which cells the fibers are coming out of because the cells are destroyed when the fibers are pulled out.
I reground this razor to a single bevel in hope that I could make a section of the leaf while keeping the fiber-containing cells intact.
Using this razor, I'm able to make very clean sections of leaf. You can see the individual tubes that make up vascular bundles and also the spaces between the cell walls:
I also sectioned the leaf longitudinally along the vascular bundles to look for those fiber cells. Here's what they look like in brightfield and under polarized light:
I don't know what the function of these helically banded cells are, but they're distributed all throughout the leaves. Maybe they're some kind of tracheary element like what's found in lotus: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304377011000817
These fibers are also present whenever I section a leaf to look at under the microscope (arrow).
The fibers are made of cellulose so they're birefringent and easily seen with polarized light:
It's hard to tell which cells the fibers are coming out of because the cells are destroyed when the fibers are pulled out.
I reground this razor to a single bevel in hope that I could make a section of the leaf while keeping the fiber-containing cells intact.
Using this razor, I'm able to make very clean sections of leaf. You can see the individual tubes that make up vascular bundles and also the spaces between the cell walls:
I also sectioned the leaf longitudinally along the vascular bundles to look for those fiber cells. Here's what they look like in brightfield and under polarized light:
I don't know what the function of these helically banded cells are, but they're distributed all throughout the leaves. Maybe they're some kind of tracheary element like what's found in lotus: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304377011000817
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This is publishing worthy!
Ertiocx
Carnivorous Plant Addict
It's been a while since I posted this plant.
N. edwardsiana (Tambuyukon):
I received this as a basal cutting from Jake Chickenbark, who very kindly held it for several months while we waited for the weather to warm up enough for shipping.
Here's a photo from June 2023 showing the root development:
I figure this is about 6 to 7 months after it was removed from the mother plant.
Here it is about a month later (July 14, 2023), pitchering from the first leaf it fully grew in my care.
Here it is Sept 7, 2023:
Its growth has sped up a lot since the above photo, I figure the roots are finally well established by now.
Its newest pitcher is much toothier than the previous ones too:
Very exciting, can't wait to watch this plant develop
N. edwardsiana (Tambuyukon):
I received this as a basal cutting from Jake Chickenbark, who very kindly held it for several months while we waited for the weather to warm up enough for shipping.
Here's a photo from June 2023 showing the root development:
I figure this is about 6 to 7 months after it was removed from the mother plant.
Here it is about a month later (July 14, 2023), pitchering from the first leaf it fully grew in my care.
Here it is Sept 7, 2023:
Its growth has sped up a lot since the above photo, I figure the roots are finally well established by now.
Its newest pitcher is much toothier than the previous ones too:
Very exciting, can't wait to watch this plant develop
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Jake Chickenbark
Carnivore
Fortunately enough, my mother plant has produced another basal
