Revisiting UNH's Collection

Nepenthes maxima

On my way back from teaching the fourth graders about carnivorous plants, I swung by the University of New Hampshire to see my friends there and take a few photos of their collection. The plant that immediately caught my attention was this Nepenthes maxima, which reminded me quite a bit of Nepenthes hurrelliana.

Nepenthes 'Rokko'

There were quite a few Nepenthes pitchering. The constant fertilizer feed system UNH has is certainly a testament to how much Nepenthes actually do like fertilizer. I was very happy to see how well all their plants were doing.

Sarracenia alata "Maroon Throat"

All of UNH's Sarrs were still growing quite nicely. They were prepping to put them into cool dormancy within the next couple weeks (as we all have been doing here in New England). It was nice to see a few pitchers still up and growing, unlike mine, which have all been put away for winter.

Sarracenia x catesbaei

Overall, the collection looks quite nice. I'm glad that it is flourishing. And I'm quite envious of the greenhouse which keeps the frost off of the whole collection, too. It makes me wish that I had a greenhouse of my own.

Utricularia gibba

Even a few of the species which I have lost, such as this U. gibba, were growing quite well. As for my own aquatics, I'm waiting to see whether they survive winter outside. Fingers crossed that they do.

Heliamphora heterodoxa x minor

Perhaps the most impressive plant of all was this Heliamphora heterodoxa x minor. It was doing so well! More impressive were the three flower spikes coming off of it. (Quick, someone get a tuning fork!)

A view of the collection, including the Heli flower

It's a little blurry, but this is a good shot of the Heli flowers as compared to the rest of the collection.

Heliamphora flower

I honestly can't wait until my plants start flowering as well. I'm very hopeful that that happens soon. My biggest Heli, also a H. heterodoxa x minor, isn't quite as big as UNH's, but it's getting fairly large. I've always found Heli flowers magnificent. These ones truly were.

Heli flower

Alright, just one more shot of them, hanging like delicate little ghosts the day before Halloween.

Brocchinia reducta
Catopsis berteroniana

As usually, UNH's bromeliads were doing well. The Brocchinia and Catopsis were still quite large. (As a side note, if you, like me, bought a Catopsis berteroniana from California Carnivores or most other U.S. based nurseries or growers in the past couple years, it is likely actually Catopsis morreniana due to a mislabeling episode).  

Nepenthes maxima

Lastly, I just wanted to mention this Nepenthes maxima again. It's not often that I get to see plants that could end up confused with one another. It's been recently suggested that Nepenthes hurrelliana was actually originally a hybrid between Nepenthes veitchii and Nepenthes fusca which evolved to become a species. As you can see, at least some forms of Nepenthes maxima, are quite similar (although obvious differences do exist).