Nepenthes eymae update 2020

N. eymae is one of my favorite species. It exemplifies the the how drastically different the upper and lower pitchers can be on the same species.

The upper pitchers are wineglass or martini shaped.

Lower pitchers look a lot more like N. maxima or N. veitchii. This has created controversy in the past because major nurseries have cultured seeds and marketed as eymae to find out later when upper pitchers form.

Borneo Exotics (BE) has a new version that is currently being questioned that was release in 2016. I have one from the seed grown release sold under BE-3660, there are many clones in TC available under BE-3736.

As with any Nepenthes species there is a lot of variation expected, and intogression is usually prevented only by habitat niche or seasonality. I have not been to Sulawesi, but it’s my understanding that maxima and eymae see lot of overlap in Lumut so inter breeding would be more expected.

I have noticed that plants from other mountains do have more dramatic differentiation from maxima in both color and shape. Noticeable they truncate leaves which are not seen on maxima, and their indumentum more closely resembles the Bornean endemic N. veitchii.

I am growing several different forms from two mountains in Sulawesi that exhibit a lot of different colors and shapes.

Most of my plants are easy growers and adjusted well to higher light pretty quickly. That’s not true of all my plants though. I had two that had a tough time during summer. I had good luck by increasing humidity for one sensitive individual, I will try that with the other.

The below plant is the same age as the others. It makes progress over winter and then declines sharply during the hottest months. I will try the putting this in a tank to see if that helps to overcome the heat.

I have been having a lot of fun watching the variety as these mature. I can definitely see that these locals are less likely to be mistaken for maxima. Time will tell if this will also mean more consistent upper pitchers or not as most of the plants I’ve seen have not yet started to vine and produce upper pitchers.

I am interested to know if anyone else has experience w/ growing eymae please comment below or shoot me an email.