I was just wandering about something a few hours ago and wanted to
know if anyone else has thought of this or even tried it.
Many of us know the difficulty of getting both a female and a male
specimen of Nepenthes to flower at the same time, especially of a single
species. I remember reading an article about nepenthes grafting in CPN a
few years ago and was wondering if this is easy or not. If it is, then
wouldn't it be possible to graft a branch from a male plant onto a female
plant, for example? This way when the plant flowers, we would get both
male and female spikes and be able to get fertile seeds.
One of the possible problems I see in this, other than the
possibility of the graft not working, is that the flowering of female
plants may be induced by factors different than those needed to induce
male flowers. Not to mention that I have no idea if sex in Nepenthes is
controlled genetically (like an X and Y chromosome system) or by hormonal
factors, in which case maybe the grafted male branch would become female
in time.
The last question is if it is worth the trouble to attempt it at
all (if not only for curiosity). I believe it's possible to store pollen
in a refrigerator as with Sarracenia, correct?
Fernando Rivadavia
Tokyo - JAPAN