N. x alisaputrana – seed grown: BE-3865 XL
N. x ‘alisaputrana’ = N. rajah x burbidgeae
“A simply stunning and enormous natural hybrid, which has been recreated in our (BE) nurseries using seed-raised parent plants.”
Click here to see a short video of this item from Borneo Exotics.
Auction item spotlight video!!!
The natural hybrid was discovered in habitat near Pig Hill, just outside the Kinabalu National Park by Rob Cantley around 1985 and it’s been one of his life’s ambitions ever since to recreate it from legally obtained mother stock. To this day, it remains the largest and possibly the most spectacular hybrid Nepenthes that Rob – or perhaps anyone – has ever seen. Only one plant was found, and the pitchers were HUGE! The largest of the pitchers found that memorable day and shown in the photos here, was shipped to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London, where it monopolized press attention, even appearing on National evening news. It was certainly instrumental in helping Adrian Slack of Marston Exotics to win a Gold Medal and also a special annual award that year. You can read more about it in the Dec 2000 edition of the ICPS Newsletter here. The original amazing plant was left intact in the wild, but sadly, it was reportedly later bulldozed away as part of the development of an asparagus farm for a wealthy politician.
Borneo Exotics worked tirelessly for several decades to recreate this hybrid in their nurseries, and finally succeeded in doing so, using as the female parent a N. rajah donated in-vitro from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The male parent is one of our N. burbidgeae, raised from legally collected seeds.
Even amongst the juvenile individuals we are keeping as stock plants, variation is evident, as the photos show. The fun of this, is that some of the plants may be as good as or even better than the original plant whose photos are shown here in habitat.
Finally, there’s more good news, in that we have found this hybrid to be surprisingly vigorous and easy – especially for a hybrid involving N. rajah. It seems to require no special conditions and we grow it well in our usual treated coir fiber potting media. Sphagnum or other recognized Nepenthes media should work even better.
Photo notes: The first photo is a habitat shot of the natural hybrid of the same cross discovered circa 1985. Subsequent photos are of representative clones taken from the grex of seeds of this item, but may not be identical in appearance to plants shipped.
Source: A random selection from a huge number of different clones out of microprop.
Climate: Highland
