photo taken of a younger plant  9 / 04

Nepenthes glabrata is a nice species that was once very limited but has become more available. The Nepenthes Nursery in Germany was for the most part the only place to get this species. The plants were small from tissue culture. Now Borneo Exotics has their clones available although the price is still a bit high for some growers but should start coming down as more plants get into circulation. My biggest clone came from the Nepenthes Nursery and is about 3 feet and vining and producing bigger, more adult pitchers. This species puts out sideshoots readily but so far has put most of its growing vigor into the main vine. It has done fine for me outdoors under shade cloth in typical highland conditions. Now that my biggest plant is in the vining stage, it is growing much quicker. For me, it seems like this species kind of grows slowly for a while until it gets around 10-12 inches and then really kicks off. The tendrils are very long and they like to wrap around things for support. It grows similar to N. tobaica and N. tentaculata. This species is one of my favorites and stays relatively small as a scrambling vine. The striations on the pitcher also make this species unique. Hopefully there will be some hybrids with N. glabrata now that bigger plants are in circulation. But as of now, 2007, hybrids using N. glabrata are few. 

Cultivation: moderate grower outdoors; maybe quicker in a terrarium environment, quicker grower in vining stage
Market availability: size 2 to size 3; available but  uncommon 
Species variability: not much that I've seen, maybe a little with the seed grown plants
$ / size: moderate to expensive for a small plant $35.00 - $60.00 and up for larger plants and cuttings
Cuttings: none available for trade
Sex: unknown