Question
hi, i have a nepenthes ventricosa. i got it from you guys very recently. i here this species must have a male and female plant to produce seeds. i was wondering if this is true are your plants that you send us male or female. and sorry to ask but are there different types of nepenthes venricosa or are there just hybrids with other nepenthes.

Answer
Hi Christian,

All Nepenthes are dioecious having male and female plants.  You need one of each to get pollination and seed production.  All Nepenthes freely hybridize, so you just need a male and female; they don't need to be the same species.  Nepenthes ventricosa has different forms, but their are no subspecies I'm aware of.  When Nepenthes are young there is no way to tell the gender short of a genetic analysis.  Unlike animals, plants show no outward differences, so I don't know if our plants were male or female.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.cobraplant.com