Nepenthes dubia
purchase date (plant on left): 5 / 04
arrived as size 2
plant origin: Borneo Exotics seed grown
photo taken: 6 / 04
purchase date (plant on right): 10 / 03
arrived as size 2
plant origin: Nepenthes Nursery tissue culture
photo taken: 6 / 04
Nepenthes dubia is a newly introduced species into cultivation. The plants above originated from the Nepenthes Nursery in Germany and Borneo Exotics. The plant from Borneo Exotics is from seed while I believe the Nepenthes Nursery plant is from tissue culture. The specimen fresh from tissue culture above arrived about as small as they come. The only other species that small I've seen is N. villosa. Anyway, it has definitely grown! The tissue cultured plant has been a more vigorous grower than the seed grown plant. The seed grown plant has a striated pitcher compared to the German clone. Hopefully the seed grown plant doesn't turn out to be a hybrid! Both plants were potted up and put outdoors immediately with no problems. There are some good pictures of this species in Clarke's book "Nepenthes of Sumatra." This species has an almost totally diminished lid and very funnel shaped. The lid is completely horizontal to the peristome from the photos I've seen of this species. It is somewhat similar to N. inermis in that the pitcher is funnel shaped and has a reduced lid. From the looks of things so far, N. dubia appears to be a quick grower like N. inermis for a highlander so hopefully bigger plants will be available soon.
RATING
highlander 1800m-2700m
Cultivation: easy; moderate to fast grower for
a highlander
Market availability: size 2; extremely limited
at this time
Species variability: none that I'm aware of, possible
variation from seed grown plants and tissue culture plants
$ / size: expensive; $30.00 to $99.00 for seed
grown size 2 plants
Cuttings: none available for trade
Sex: unknown