Nepenthes Robcantleyi

12/29/14

One of the neat things about Nepenthes robcantleyi is how slowly its pitchers color-up. It takes weeks for them to turn the dark, almost black that made this species so famous. Happily, my plant is now producing large enough pitchers that I'm beginning to see some really wonderful colors.

1/2/2015

Thankfully, the change from the pale yellow pitchers to bright red pitchers was documented photographically for one pitcher. The difference between two days is remarkable. The pitcher flushes with a significant amount of red.

1/5/2015

I find Nepenthes robcantleyi to be one of the easiest intermediate species. Other than sitting it in a very shallow tray of water, which I allow to dry out occasionally, this species does not require any kind of special treatment. The potting mix is just long-fiber sphagnum moss.

1/10/2015

Eleven days after fully opening, the pitchers are completely flushed with red. They are truly remarkable, even before they begin to turn a dark, blackish. (What is, perhaps, more remarkable is the thick tendril and truncata-esque leaves).

1/16/2015

Seventeen days after opening fully, the pitchers begin to turn darker. If this were a mature pitcher under strong light , it would turn black. Right now, this plant is still too juvenile (and probably not under strong enough light) for the pitchers to turn completely black.