Though I do not think that I'm that much of an expert....:-)
...it occurs that a side shoot of a vine produced intermediate or lower
pitchers for a time which in fact is the same as the nice side short
shoots e.g. N. ampullaria frequently produces. In fact this species
does not produce "upper pitchers" at all and all upper pitchers are
in fact produced by small short side shoots which grow as rosettes
and have a _partly_ juvenile phenotype insofar as the pitchers look
same. However in contrast to real juvenile plants the so called
leafblade (in Nepenthes it's a little controverse what this
structure really is morphologically) is highly reduced here so that it
looks like the a small rosette consisting only of pitchers - very
nice sight.
Other species produce side rosettes which have a more "juvenile"
phenotype.
And sometimes this habit can be forced in cultivation by cutting the
tip of a vine.
All the best
Andreas
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