A garden's chronicles


Welcome,
At the times of social networks, starting a blog might be considered old-fashioned in a way but this is pretty convenient to share in a same place all my obsessions and creations.
"Strange fruits" is mainly focused on carnivorous plants as it is my main center of interest at the moment. You will thus find infos on the plants I grow, my cultivation techniques, my travels, updates on my research and publications as a taxonomist, reports on CP meetings, CP books reviews and much more. You will also find a lot of stuff linked to literature, music, entomology and drawing. I do hope you will find here a couple of interesting things.
Remember that this is a blog. Therefore, you are all welcome to share thoughts and comments.


François Sockhom Mey

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

"The real Heliamphora neblinae"

There has been quite a discussion these last years on the plants spread in cultivation as Heliamphora neblinae. Below is a plant sold by Andreas Wistuba which is supposed to be a good match for this species:
According to Stewart McPherson who extensively explored Cerro neblina and other locations, this plant does not fit with the plant described as H. neblinae. It is rather, according to him, and undescribed "form" of Heliamphora tatei or, maybe, a hybrid between H. tatei and H. hispida. I know that when this plant gets larger, the spoon gets a bit wider as well. Unfortunately my plant is too young to exhibit such a feature.


Still, it is really hard for me to accept that this Heliamphora neblinae is conspecific with the plant below.
This second plant has recently been advertized on The Nepenthes nursery and Extreme Plants websites as "the real neblinae" (the material is the same). It has been described as H. neblinae var. parva and it is easily distinguishable from the other plant sold as H. neblinae thanks to its fantastic spoon which gives it a Sarracenia look.
To me this plant is the closest we got to the spectacular H. mcdonaldae.


One of the most desirable Heliamphora. Period.

0 comments:

Post a Comment