Nepenthes lavicola is a plant I became familiar with when Clarke's book "Nepenthes of Sumatra" hit the market. The pictures show a primarily dark brown pitcher with a cool green and maroon striped peristome. You can see that with this plant. Clarke says that N. lavicola produces some small tubby rosette pitchers before the typical cylindrical ones. I'll go along with that. N. lavicola seems to be an easy going variety to grow outdoors with little problems. It's a slightly slower grower than some of its other highland counterparts but worth the wait for its contrasting brown striped pitcher and its striking peristome.

Cultivation: easy; somewhat of a slow grower
Market availability: size 2 to size 3; fairly available now
Species variability: locality differences possibly
$ / size: moderate $30.00 and up
Cuttings: none available for trade
Sex: unknown