Pitchers forming on Flower stalks

[housepet]

Hi Everyone,
Recently I noticed fewer pitchers forming amidst much growth of non-carnivorous leaves on my Cephalotus.
Also, there is a young pitcher forming part way up one of the new flower stalks on my Two Peoples Bay that I ordered from Brad Taylor last fall.
Finally, there was another young pitcher which formed part way up the flower stalk on my Triffid Park Red which was ordered at the same time from Brad Taylor.
Today, I cut the Triffid Park Red form pitcher from the flower stalk and planted it about 3 inches deep with rooting powder on its lower section.

The remaining photo is from the Two Peoples Bay pitcher and its flower stalk.

 

[housepet]

Hi Everyone,
Recently I noticed fewer pitchers forming amidst much growth of non-carnivorous leaves on my Cephalotus.
Also, there is a young pitcher forming part way up one of the new flower stalks on my Two Peoples Bay that I ordered from Brad Taylor last fall.
Finally, there was another young pitcher which formed part way up the flower stalk on my Triffid Park Red which was ordered at the same time from Brad Taylor.
Today, I cut the Triffid Park Red form pitcher from the flower stalk and planted it about 3 inches deep with rooting powder on its lower section. View attachment 8584
The remaining photo is from the Two Peoples Bay pitcher and its flower stalk.
I am fairly new to Cephalotus and Nepenthes. Being that this is the first time I saw Pitchers form on a flower stalk, I wonder if anyone else has experienced this. I haven't yet found any descriptions or photos online and do not know if there are descriptions or images from books. All I know is that the pitcher is a modified leaf and flower stalks normally have non carnivorous leaves attached to them.

 

[John Yates]

Hi housepet , that is rather cool to see, some thing you differently dont see very often , probably only seen it once in 40 + yeas of cephs ,never seen it in the wild so far, may be some one has but, not been informed by those who would know , will ask around to the guys that see them a lot as ask if its been viewed in the wide at all ,,will ask the EU and US guys too just in-case . can i have permission to use your photo to show others in EU and here in AU please . if so to send the photos to y email addy i can give you in a pm thanks john

 

[housepet]

Thanks John and sure, you have permission to use the photos. I am interested in knowing what other people think of it. The plants were in a 4x4x6 foot grow tent all winter with LED grow lights full spectrum on at 0700 and out at 2200 about 2 feet above. Days were 20-25 C and 12-16 C nights and RH 45-60%. Pots are 6 inch with 50% peat to 50 % silica sand with 1/2 inch water in the tray which is let to dry out one day per week. and RH 45-60%. It also happened just above the base on my typical flower stalk from Brad. I didn't fertilize. All flower stalks have tiny leaves on them. Wanting to see if they will sprout new growth from meristematic tissue, I cut them into segments and potted them in each mother pot deep to the base of each leaf. Thus my reason for clipping all of the flower stalks. The stalks with pitchers on them almost have me convinced that they are doubling as a vine.

 

[John Yates]

ok sounds great , for me the best way to get cutting or pullings going was to put them in live sphagunm moss , that seems to work best for me ,never had much success with flower stalk though , will be interesting to see what your results will be ,please keep us posted thanks john

 

[VarunA]

Thats awesome. I do recall seeing VFT and Ceph pictures of this sort of traps growing on flower stalks....however, I do agree that they seem to be super rare. I won't disagree with John given the amount of experience he has in this hobby. I am interested to know as well what prompts a plant to grow traps on the flower stalks. The one time I had a ceph form a flower stalk, I tried rooting it and it failed.

 

[John Yates]

VarunA you can disagree with me that's no problem , every one has a right to there opinion , i can only put my comments in from my prospective from here in AU , it may vary to where others may grow , all ways room for different opinions ,thanks for the respect though

 

[housepet]

ok sounds great , for me the best way to get cutting or pullings going was to put them in live sphagunm moss , that seems to work best for me ,never had much success with flower stalk though , will be interesting to see what your results will be ,please keep us posted thanks john

Come to think of it, I did this with one pitcher that I placed in a sealed jar right on the back of a shelf about six months ago and forgot about it until today when I checked to find that its still sitting in live moss without any change. Its almost as if it doesn't even know it was clipped. I wish I would've thought of that when these ones were clipped.

 

[housepet]

Thats awesome. I do recall seeing VFT and Ceph pictures of this sort of traps growing on flower stalks....however, I do agree that they seem to be super rare. I won't disagree with John given the amount of experience he has in this hobby. I am interested to know as well what prompts a plant to grow traps on the flower stalks. The one time I had a ceph form a flower stalk, I tried rooting it and it failed.

I cant imagine what it would look like to have traps coming off a VFT flower stalk. Would love to see some photos of that.

 

[VarunA]

I cant imagine what it would look like to have traps coming off a VFT flower stalk. Would love to see some photos of that.

Here you go:

The Carnivorous Plant FAQ: Why is my plant making a flower stalk with baby plants on it?

 

[housepet]

Wow! Thank you! And they even gave a name-"false vivipary". In the photo, I counted three separate areas of growth and I believe they are on only one of the stalks. Now, if we could only find out what causes this, we might have less need for seeds and tissue culture. Knowing that new growth comes from meristematic tissue, perhaps we should look there? Perhaps some IBA swabbed onto growth buds?

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

IBA is an auxin. BAP might be better.

 

[housepet]

Thanks Lloyd, I always forget which is the cytokinin and which is the auxin. Right now, I'm out of everything that expired with only one bottle of Kinetin.
BTW-How come you know so much?

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

I don't know that much but I've been playing with PGR for years now in vitro and in vivo.
BTW, I wouldn't throw away your supplies, lots of them last for years at room temperature. You can always make a Keiki paste and test it on a plant.

 

[Cosmicthelawless]

I've had the same happen to one of my plants, it's currently making a third pitcher.

 

[Corpse]

Wow that’s cool to see!

 

[coconut]

Amazing !!!

 

[1975goat]

So cool to see, I’ve never seen it in any of my plants, I do know you can root easily a VFT flower stalk, I did in my mini bog garden