Nepenthes Collection at Nat'l. Bot. Garden, (Wash., DC)

MALOUF@ESTD.NRL.NAVY.MIL
Mon, 25 Oct 1993 7:20:49 -0400 (EDT)

I visited the new storage greenhouses of the National Botanical Garden
this past Friday, courtesy of Bill McLaughlan. These greenhouses store
that portion of the Garden's inventory that is not being displayed
i.e. most of it. The Garden is moving its inventory from the old storage
greenhouses in Anacostia to a spanking new facility near the DC Fire
Training Academy.

Bill Maintains an impressive collection. It sits on a three-tiered
double-sided bench about thirty feet long. I didn't count the
exact number of plants, and I didn't make a list of the different
kinds of Nepenthes (I thought it would be impolite for me to do
so), but I'd estimate that he has over 80 plants. He keeps the
hybrids on one half of the bench, and the rest on the other half.
>From memory I can name only three Nepenthes that he DOESN'T have:
N. Treubiana, N. Edwardsiana, N. Dicksoniana. Ooops, make that
four: N. Rajah. He had one hybrid that had very large
pitchers. I forgot the name of the hybrid, but I do remember that
it was named after someone (Peters?). The plant was in an 18 inch
pot, had a thick stem, and was crowded with large leaves. The
pitchers were cylindrical and mottled red, about 10" high and
3.5 inches in diameter. The pitchers could easily accomodate a
frog or mouse. (This plant would have a nice symbiotic relationship
with an Alka-Seltzer shrub!). Bill said that this hybrid is a slow
grower.

I remarked that the humidity in the new greenhouse seemed to be
too low for Nepenthes, even with the evaporative cooler working.
Bill agreed, and said he was trying to remedy the situation. He
has a lot more room for his collection in the new facility, and
so he's allowing the plants to grow much taller. The bad news
(for me) is that he won't have to do as much pruning and so I
won't be getting "trashbags full of cuttings" (to paraphrase a
previous post). The good news is that he now has the room to
propagate many plants. Perhaps, after some time, he'll have
plenty of rooted cuttings for trade.

(I just remembered, he doesn't have N. Lowii either).

That's my report.

Perry