photo taken of a smaller pitcher

N. sumatrana
purchase date: 11 / 02
arrived as a size 3
plant origin: Malesiana Tropicals
photo taken:  9 / 04

As soon as I saw Charles Clarke's "Nepenthes of Sumatra" with Nepenthes sumatrana on the cover, I fell in love with this plant. It is a true lowlander that can be greenish to this red with striped peristome beauty. It does get fairly large, like most lowlanders over time. I grow this plant indoors as a windowsill plant on a table below the actual window in my bedroom. It has pitchered for me and is doing well. Since I don't grow my lowlanders in heated, humid, well lighted terrariums I suspect that it is growing slower than normal. The fact that I haven't had any problems with this plant grown under my conditions attests that this Nepenthes should be a fairly easy lowlander to grow. As of the most recent photo, Nepenthes sumatrana is beginning to put out larger pitchers. The leaves are getting close to a foot long and the tendrils are reaching the floor. This plant is going to be huge!! All the more reason to try and grow this guy outside of a terrarium! It's also turning out to be one of the easiest lowlanders to grow in household environments. Another must have for the collection.

Cultivation: easy in houseplant conditions, easy under typical terrarium conditions but gets large!
Market availability: size 2, size 3 to  possibly larger plants; somewhat limited
Species variability: green form and the red striped form
$ / size: moderate to expensive; $40.00 and up for larger plants if available
Cuttings: none available for trade
Sex: unknown