photo taken 8/03

N. truncata "highland red"
purchase date: 3 / 03
arrived as a size 3 from seed
plant origin: Borneo Exotics
photo taken: 8 / 04

This form of Nepenthes truncata  recently became available. Borneo Exotics says the plant gets larger than the usual Nepenthes truncata, (which is already a huge plant!) and that its color is variable. The pitchers can be red to pure black! The first specimens released were seed grown plants and expensive. Only a few seed grown plants popped up as the black version. I have seen a photo from Exotic Plants Plus and from a grower in Japan of the black version. I was told that the black color variants are very distinguishable at an early age and appear to produce "tubby" lower pitchers that are markedly different from the other plants. Some plants are reaching flowering size now so there may be a chance of crosses involving the black variant. But it will be some time for that to occur. My other highland red has a darker hue than my seed grown one and it is from tissue culture. How dark the pitchers will be will depend on sunlight as it grows out. I've found that this is a nice species to grow, but does take its time. Now that it is in tissue culture prices have definitely come down, but it is still fairly expensive.

Cultivation: easy; slow grower
Market availability: size 3 to larger plants; available
Species variability: red, green, black, and in between
$ / size: moderate to expensive; $35.00 and up for tissue culture clones;  $70.00 and up for seed grown plants
Cuttings: none available for trade
Sex: unknown