Introduced July 2018. This fabulous natural hybrid was first available as ‘all different individuals from seed’ under BE-3865 in Jan 2018 and immediately sold out. At the time of writing (July 2018) the first plants originating from microprop are becoming available. These are from such a large number of clones, that the chances are high that all plants in any nursery batch will be different individuals from each other.

From Rob Cantley (Borneo Exotics)....

"This fabulous 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 Rob - or perhaps anyone - has ever seen. Only one plant was found and the pitchers were just HUGE! The largest of the pitchers found that memorable day was shipped to the Chelsea Flower Show in London, where it monopolised press attention and was certainly instrumental in helping Adrian Slack to win a Gold medal and a special annual award that year. You can read more about it in the Dec 2000 edition of the ICPS Newsletter atwww.borneoexotics.com/files/rajburb.pdf. This amazing plant was left intact, but sadly, subsequently it was reportedly bulldozed away as part of the development of an asparagus farm for a wealthy politician.

We have worked tirelessly for several decades to recreate this hybrid and have finally succeeded in doing so, using as the female parent a Nepenthes rajah donated in-vitro from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The pollen donor is one of our Nepenthes burbidgeae, raised from legally collected seeds. The plants offered here are NURSERY SEED-GROWN, so each are individual clones. Upon maturity, they can be expected to be of variable form and size, although all will be colourful. Even amongst the very juvenile individuals we have, variation is already becoming evident, as the photos on the pricelist 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 in habitat.

Finally, there is more good news in that we have found this hybrid to be surprisingly vigorous and easy, especially for a hybrid involving Nepenthes rajah. It seems to require no special conditions and we grow it well in our usual coir fibre potting media. Sphagnum or other recognised Nepenthes media should work even better.

Please note that as these are all different clones from seeds, the plants you receive may not be of identical appearance to any of the photos shown here.

Nepenthes × alisaputrana was described in 1992 by J. H. Adam and C. C. Wilcock and is named in honour of Datuk Lamri Ali, a former Director of Sabah Parks. It is only known from a few remote localities within Kinabalu National Park, where it grows in stunted, open vegetation over serpentine soils at around 2000 m above sea level, often amongst populations of N. burbidgeae. It grows alongside both parent species on Pig Hill, where it is found at 1930–1950 m.

This plant is notable for combining the best characters of both parent species, not least the size of its pitchers, which rival those of N. rajahin volume (≤35 cm high, ≤20 cm wide).The other hybrids involving N. rajah do not exhibit such impressive proportions. The pitchers of N. × alisaputrana can be distinguished from those of N. burbidgeae by a broader peristome, larger lid and simply by their sheer size. The hybrid differs from its other parent, N. rajah, by its lid structure, indumentum of short, brown hairs, narrower and more cylindrical peristome, and pitcher colour, which is usually yellow-green with red or brown flecking. For this reason, Anthea Phillipps and Anthony Lamb gave it the common name "Leopard Pitcher-Plant". The peristome is green to dark red and striped with purple bands. Leaves are often slightly peltate. The hybrid is a strong climber and frequently produces upper pitchers.

Nepenthes × alisaputrana more closely resembles N. rajah than N. burbidgeae, but it is difficult to confuse this plant with either. However, this mistake has previously been made on at least one occasion; a pitcher illustrated in Adrian Slack's Insect-Eating Plants and How to Grow Them as being N. rajah is in fact N. burbidgeae × N. rajah.

-Tracking number provided

-live arrival guaranteed -see Terms & Conditions

-price is for one plant

Please inform me if your weather conditions are unsuitable for shipping, and/or have special requirement.