Nepenthes Flowering

[rainforest]

This thread will feature all aspects of nepenthes flowers, from immature buds to discern differences between sexes, to inducing plants to flower and the optimal conditions to keep our nepenthes happy and productive during this period of sexual development.
Special focus will be on topics to find an effective tool to use for sex determination well before the actual flowering commences.

Michael

[rainforest]

Characteristic female buds just opening from the leaf sheath.

As the stem becomes fuller, you can see the distinct buds being pointed with a pointed tip. Also note the arrangement of the buds on the stem and see the wider spacing between each bud. Female flowers usually rests parallel to the main stem in the budded stage.

Characteristic male buds as they develop into flowers.

Note the rounded appearance of the individual buds. In most instances, a conical pointed spike are characteristics of a male, while a female spike is more evenly uniform throughout. A budded spike may be reminiscent of an ear of corn.
M

[rainforest]

Nepenthes are dioecious (translates to two houses) and has their sexes separate on two different plants. This always guarantees perfect cross pollination and a vigorous seedling batch.
Female flowers are distinctive looking. Most have a lime green tip (stigma) which is the receptive organ for receiving the pollen grains.


The male flowers have the pollen at their tips.

The male flowering period usually lasts longer then the quick flowering females.

M

[victoria]

Going by your description my N. fusca flower (first nep flower for me so I am SUPER excited!) looks like a possible male to me....what do you think, or is it to soon to tell?


I am very interested in any tips you have to keeping Neps growing optimally during their flowering stage....should I continue to fertilize as I have been or is it best to back off or increase fertilizing while they are in flower?

Do Neps usually continue to produce pitchers regularly and normally while in bloom?

Also, I read somewhere that the flowers of Neps smell like dirty socks....is that true? I sure hope not because I grow all my Neps as windowsill plants, so the house could get pretty rancid!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Happy growing;
Victoria

[rainforest]

I would say fertilize but it really makes no difference to the plant when in bloom. The focus and energy is all about the flower. Nutrients in the soil allows the plant to continue on schedule and will not compromise nutrients for pitcher making, stem elongation, and general pitcher production, growth, new leaves, even newer flower spikes.
Water is key and they should get plenty of it.
The "fragrance" varies but usually all sorts of things come to mind.

M

[victoria]

The "fragrance" varies but usually all sorts of things come to mind.

Well that sure isnt very comforting! Im starting to get the feeling my husband is going to complain about the strange smell coming from our home and ask me to do a better job at cleaning, lol!

Approximately how long does it take a flower to mature? Do you have any pictures of what the male flower/pollen should look like when it is ready to be collected?

Do you have any opinions on if mine is male or female? It definitely has more of a corn on the cob look to it.

Victoria

[obregon562]

i would say male victoris. it takes anywhere from a few weeks to a month or two for the flowers to fully open and mature. Males last longer too. it shouldnt smell up the ENTIRE house. well i dont think so anyway haha.

Hope this helps!
Frankie

[unclemasa]

Congratulation Victoria! ( .. on both your flowering of the N. fusca and your seedlings)

Looks like a male. The fragrance is very musky and it will be more noticeable in the evening and mornings but should not be too overwhelming.

If, you had a big N. truncata in you house then, it might well be a problem.

[victoria]

Thanks guys! Im glad to hear that the odor wont be to bad! It is definitely worth whatever odor may come in my opinion, the more seeds we can all get out their the better!

So how much pollen does it take to pollinate a female flower? When I send the pollen do I send all of it or just some of it? Nothing like sweating the small stuff huh, lol.

Happy growing all!
Victoria

[phissionkorps]

All the plants I've had flower, I found at least semi-pleasant. I've heard they smell like anything from a dumpster to semen, but I've never experienced this.

So how much pollen does it take to pollinate a female flower?

Technically, 1 grain.

When I send the pollen do I send all of it or just some of it?

Send however much the person needs, freeze the rest. Send it right though.

[lamwn]

Hi,
I made some observations with my crosses which I would like to verify with other breeders, particularly those who grow in similar lowland conditions.
(1) Pollination seems to take best on flowers open for 5-7days, not freshly open, nor too old.
(2) Lowlander pollen seems more vigorous/potent (in my growing conditions) than equally fresh, equally abundant highland one - for example, when raff and xtiveyi are crossed on to the same spike, the raff takes easily but the tiveyi are slow and doesnt take, or dont develop well, although both are healthy plants, and producing pollen collected in similar ways.
would really like to know more about these, because I've been making quite some crosses lately, but only seeing the lousy ones take, but the potentially good ones failling, and it really discourages me...
thanks

[rainforest]

I used to feel that way too, but I found out that some plants (lowland and highland alike) requires some maturing of the plant to be capable of feeding a spike for seed development. Sometimes we get greedy and pollinate every flower, something that doesn't always occur in the wild. While the plant produces a long spike of female flowers, all their energy goes into making it and then developing it. I sometimes cut off the spike after I have made my desired cross then I get better results for seed take. Some plants are just not capable of the breeding process. Several tissue cultured clones are either infertile or are mules when it comes to breeding. Be sure your plants are healthy before allowing them to participate in the breeding process. Some plants produce more spikes than they really should and it is best to allow just a single spike of flowers to set one batch of seeds. Larger plants can house several spikes simultaneously and this can be stressful to the plant.
Try experimenting with the plant on repeated occasions, try the partial spike test and even making sure that the stigmas are receptive too!

M

[idontlikeforms]

Let me see if I undestand what you are saying correctly here Rainforest.

When the female flower opens, you pollinate the lower flowers then cut off the upper ones(one the same spike) and any other spikes too? And this causes a better germination rate or larger seeds that sprout into bigger seedings?

[rainforest]

It's been done for many other crops too! Small fruits removed from many fruit trees to encourage a better fruit set, disbud roses on a branch to get a bigger flower, and yes, remove the excess flowers/buds from a spike to make a better fruit (seedpod) set. Nepenthes don't get that lucky in nature to have every single flower turn to seed. And even if they do, only the better pods develop. But you must understand that these nepenthes in the wild are adapted and adjusted to growing where they are and can depend on their water supply, sunlight and nutrients during their flowering season. These variables change with our routines in captivity and the results are that the plants suffer due to it.
Besides what will you do with a million seeds of N. ventricosa x Ventrata any way?
M

[lamwn]

Hi Michael,
I think you hit it quite right again on this one.
See this:


those monstrous seed pods are pollinated by raff, but the dismal looking ones are by xtiveyi.
But what i dont quite understand is (I posted an image of this raff mom before) she is really huge, and I thought bearing the fruit wouldnt tire her at all, but recent pitcher sizes decreased significantly, and both growing tips are now producing small stubby leaves!
Further up the spike, rokko 'exotica' pollen has taken but the fruits are only half the size of the raff fruits, though still significantly larger than the x Tiveyi fruits.
I doubt it is a failed pollination, as I'm quite confident I did it right.
Adding to this is a similar observation on an ampullaria mom. She made 1/4 a spike of large x rafflesiana fruit, but the lower crosses didnt seem to take well (they were sent all the way from Hawaii, from you...I'm really sorry, once again ) However, when I tried planting out the x Tiveyi seed (which i also did on her), they germinated, despite being only about 1cm long (they seemed to contained embryos nevertheless).
These observations lead me to believe that the plant actually divides out its resources and feeds the fruits which were pollinated by the most "vigorous" (?) pollen (in these two cases raff). It seems sound from an ecological perspective.
What I'm now curious about is whether or not it does this because its actually having too much of a burden to bear, or whether its just being stingy with its resources on the less ecologically 'fit' pollen (sounds really strange describing pollen that way )
What do you think?
thanks
Lam