Knowledgebase
Does nepenthes replace lost pitchers? #381262
Asked January 05, 2017, 5:53 PM EST
Before contacting you, I looked everywhere on the Net and I cannot find an answer to essentially one question with a possibility: "Once a pitcher on the nepenthes plant dries up and dies, will another pitcher grow in its place--replacing it on the same tendril (if I remove the old dead pitcher from the end of that tendril)? Or is it that once the pitcher on a tendril dies, the plant never sends out a new pitcher to replace the old, dried up pitcher. Thus the tendril will always remain bare?"
I'm sure many new growers will be greatly intrigued by your answer as well, and I look forward immensely to your expert knowledge in resolving such a perplexing query, again, for which no information can be found anywhere on the Net.
Thank you in advance.
Gratefully yours,
-Christine
Kings County New York
Expert Response
Hi Christine,
I asked the person who runs the UConn Evolutionary Biology Greenhouse on campus, Clinton Morse and this is what he said:
The pitcher is a leaf modification - as such, if the pitcher dies back it will not regrow a new pitcher on the same leaf. However, as long as the leaf blade is green and viable, it continues to be a photosynthetic resource for the plant.
Typically, when pitchers die back, we trim them off but leave the leaf blade. If the leaf itself is damaged or has died back, then we remove the entire leaf.
If conditions are right, new leaves will produce pitchers as they are forming, so keeping the plant in a healthy, actively growing state will keep a regular production of new leaves (and pitchers) coming along.
Hope this helps.
