Post by Flytrap on Sept 5, 2006 19:46:57 GMT -5
That new guy ..."treefrog" injected some new buzz into my week, by showing pics of his terrarium and tropical treefrogs. So I had to slow down and think, what small neps can be grown in a tropical terrarium... something that won't snack on the froggies. hmmmm
I first thought of N. belli, but then figured that it was too high a maintenance plant...and besides, it grew too slow and is finicky when it comes to temperature swings. Then it struck me. The cute and happy nep that originates from Lake Toba!!! One of my favourite small scrambling neps. I have three varieties of it - a blood red form, a spotted pink and orange form and a golden green form. Their basal pitchers look best, but uppers are kind of neat too. These tobaicas are the cool highland equivalents of Nep gracilis - but are much more forgiving in temperature requirements- give them warm or cool, and they'd still thrive. Here are some photos I took of N tobaica I gleaned from my photos. I'll shoot a few more later this week:
upper pitcher of the waxy green gold form, I call it big mouth because it has a disproportionately large mouth.
a flower spike of the above form, started to bloom last month (August)...it's a boy.
a basal pitcher of the blood red form.
As you can see, the pitchers are all quite tiny and compact. After I lopped off the growing tip of my orange and pink form, leave rosettes of tiny plantlets sprouted up on every old leaf node. Some of you who received rooted cuttings of my tobaica earlier this year, may be wondering which form I shipped out to you. I probably identified it as clone 'A', 'B' and 'DS' ... the A form is the blood red, B form is the orange and pink and DS is the golden green bigmouth.
David
I first thought of N. belli, but then figured that it was too high a maintenance plant...and besides, it grew too slow and is finicky when it comes to temperature swings. Then it struck me. The cute and happy nep that originates from Lake Toba!!! One of my favourite small scrambling neps. I have three varieties of it - a blood red form, a spotted pink and orange form and a golden green form. Their basal pitchers look best, but uppers are kind of neat too. These tobaicas are the cool highland equivalents of Nep gracilis - but are much more forgiving in temperature requirements- give them warm or cool, and they'd still thrive. Here are some photos I took of N tobaica I gleaned from my photos. I'll shoot a few more later this week:
upper pitcher of the waxy green gold form, I call it big mouth because it has a disproportionately large mouth.
a flower spike of the above form, started to bloom last month (August)...it's a boy.
a basal pitcher of the blood red form.
As you can see, the pitchers are all quite tiny and compact. After I lopped off the growing tip of my orange and pink form, leave rosettes of tiny plantlets sprouted up on every old leaf node. Some of you who received rooted cuttings of my tobaica earlier this year, may be wondering which form I shipped out to you. I probably identified it as clone 'A', 'B' and 'DS' ... the A form is the blood red, B form is the orange and pink and DS is the golden green bigmouth.
David