Nepenthes alata with Heliotropium curvassicum

Nepenthes alata with Heliotropium curvassicum

Saturday, March 12, 2011

The main picture is a Nepenthes alata. They hail from...India, I think. Basic pitcher plant, grows on a vine, attracts small insects with sweet smelling digestive juices, then kills and slowly dissolves their bodies. Took a couple weeks for the larger pitched to digest a wasp, same for a medium sized mealworm. Creates its own juices, needs to be kept CONSTANTLY moist, humidity level of around 60-80%, higher the better. This ones is in medium-low level lighting, and as such isn't doing all too well, the caps on the pitchers (can't remember specific name) have dried up on all but two. However, new pitchers are coming in and as it doesn't seem to be dying, I say it's a success. The plant in the lower left corner is Seaside Heliotrope, or Heliotropium curvassicum if I remember correctly. Got it in a soil sample from the Florida Keys. Toxic, contains alkaloids. Don't eat a bunch of it. Aaaand also in the same container (but not seen in this picture as it hadn't been planted when the photo was taken) is a spider plant, without the normal variegated leaves you see on most of todays commercially grown specimens. Seems to be doing well in the low light of our New Hampshire winters. Of course, due to the tilt of the sun, more light comes through the windows now than in the summer, so we'll see how that works out. The mother plant the pup came from is on the floor, out of the frame of the picture and is about four times the size. Anyone who wants an awesome spider plant can have one if they want, I have plenty of babies growing about.

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