> I have a Rafflesiana whose leaves are undulating and crinkling. Likewise, the pitchers are also
> distorted. The distortion occurs on the pitcher as well as the peristome.
> Would like to know if anybody who have such features or occurance on their nepenthes.
> Or what could be the cause of this aberration?.
> Regards,
> Joseph.
>
Hi Joseph,
A couple of weeks ago I was still in the process of setting up my CP
terrarium and went through three steps which I will explain in a moment.
I have a 20 gallon tank (high) wrapped on 5 sides with Al foil. On top I
have a lighting system made of 4 sections of 2x4's nailed together in a
box in which my lighting system is housed. In the bottom of the
terrarium I have ~10cm of water and a water heater. This is what I did:
First I had 4-2' lights on with the water heater. The temp was about 95/80
and R.H. 70/80. The problem was that the light was too strong and,
although the leaves and parts of the pitchers were a beautiful dark red,
all the new growth was quite stunted (looked like they were cringing from
the light). I had also turned the heater off some time during the 4
light conditions, but it didn't change anything much.
Next, after reading a Nepenthes beginners "handbook" from Chris Creel
in which he mentions he grew Nep.s with only 2 bulbs, I felt validated
in removing 2 bulbs to decrease the intensity. I also turrned the heater
on again. In case you're wondering how this answers, or attempts to
answer, your question this is where you should start reading. When I
had the heater on 24 hrs a day the temp. was almost constant day and
night. The leaves produced during this period of time were, as you
mentioned, crinkled. In fact, it looked exactly like what my VFT
leaves looked like when I took them into a too warm and too light house
for the winter.
SO, it appears that these plants, like many others, enjoy a drop in
temperatures during the night. This drop has been foun to be very
important in regulating metabolism of some plants.
Ben