Posted by Mike at PetFlyTrap.com on 1/17/2020 to
Carnivorous Plant Spotlight
For this Plant Spotlight, we feature one of our newly available cultivars...Nepenthes 'Gaya'. For those who are interested in the parentage of this cultivar, it is a select clone of Nepenthes khasiana x (ventricosa x maxima).
We first received this plant in tissue culture early last year (2019), and other than the name, we had very little to go by to get more detailed information about this cultivar. What we CAN say without a doubt is that after several months of acclimatizing to regular growing conditions, they are really starting to take off! Individual plants were approximately 1.5 inches across upon arrival; and most of them now average 4 inches or so. As of this writing, they seem to grow equally well in a variety of conditions...both lowland and intermediate conditions show good growth and coloration in the plants. Of course, since our greenhouse maintains a high humidity level, we are not yet sure of this plant's tolerance for lower humidity levels. Judging from the parent species, though, we would expect it to be very forgiving.
A characteristic that we are very interested in following as these plants grow is the extent of the peristome in the young plants. Whereas the available information shows adult pitchers that possess a peristome that completely wraps around the back of the pitcher and up onto the column that connects to the hood (similar to most other Nepenthes pitchers), the peristome on juvenile pitchers is truncated, and leaves a wide column that is completely devoid of a peristome structure. Very unique indeed! We will be interested to see if the adult plants of this clone still exhibit this same characteristic, and if they truly are different from the information that we have seen.
The pitcher coloration also is spectacular, and while it has liberal dark speckling all over the outside of the pitchers, the background color fades from bright green at the bottom to a bright
cherry red near the lip. Yet another wonderful feature of this plant!
All in all, we think this plant is a winner...bright coloration, very unique pitcher/peristome shape, and ease-of-growth combined into one relatively inexpensive plant. What more could you ask for!
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3 Comments
David
Date
6/16/2022
Do you know it's sex or if it's at least fertile?
David
Date
6/16/2022
Do you know it's sex or if it's at least fertile?
Philip T.
Date
6/19/2022
I'm interested to know the sex of Nepenthes 'Gaya': can you help? (I'm surprised at how hard[/impossible] it is to find this info online!)