Re: Re: N.* coccinea???

Oliver T Massey CFS (massey@hal.fmhi.usf.edu)
Thu, 18 Jan 1996 10:14:46 -0500 (EST)

> A
> better question might be: Do you get a variety of shapes and colors
> from a single batch of seedlings when making such a cross? I know
> it is true for some other plants but I'm asking about Nepenthes in
> particular. Could there be a N.* coccinea out there that looks just
> like the N.* wrigleana cv. 'Kosobe'?
>
> Does anyone know if the sex of a given plant affects pitcher size
> or shape? Or those of it's offspring? Any work done along these
> lines at all?
>
> Dave Evans

There are a few issues here. First, given that there are within species
variations, simple hybrids produced from somewhat uniquely colored or
shaped species may produce hybrids with the same species parentage but
different individual characteristics. As an easy example just look at
the plethora of varietal names assigned to the Sarracenia and their many
resulting hybrids. Second, even given the exact same parents, some
differentiation will occur. These differences are likely to be small
and may be unnoticed, but occassionally a larger difference will
manifest. As I recall, there were two cases, one a Japanese grower and
another a few more years back, where plants were grown from one set of
seeds to maturity and then separated into several groups with each group
labeled with a separate hybrid name. In fact, for awhile N. kosobe was
thrown about as somehow distinct from N. wrigleana. I would expect that
with increased use of tissue culture for Neps., we will begin to see
occasional extraordinary indivi

Tom in Fl