Re: N. dubia pollen

MALOUF@ESTD.NRL.NAVY.MIL
Tue, 8 Mar 1994 8:02:48 -0500 (EST)

Andreas,
After your original post, I contacted Bill McLaughlin, Rob
Sacilotto, and Tina Pey (Missouri Botanical). None of these growers
has _any_ Nepenthes in bloom right now, let alone the species that
you listed as being of interest to you. Of course, it goes almost
without saying that I'm in the same position.

In my limited experience I've seen that it is somewhat
infrequent for Nepenthes to flower--it happens when the plants
get fairly large. This observation leads me to believe that
it must be very difficult to find Nepenthes seeds even in the
plants' natural habitat. (I've mentioned this before in a
direct e-mail to you). Nepenthes are dioecious--what is the
probability that a male plant and a female plant will be in
flower at the same time, in reasonable proximity? Do they have
to be in proximity? What insects might carry the pollen from
the male to the female plant?

Anyway, if people aren't responding to your post it's
probably because they're not in a position to participate in
this cooperative venture even though they'd like to. I doubt
that the readers of this group are simply 'not interested'.

Regards,

Perry