Description
SKU: BE-3931
Climate: Highland
First introduced in July 2018 through our wholesale auctions, it was then transferred to the Borneo Exotics online shop in Nov 2019. It last sold out in July 2020 and was returned as a segregated item in Feb 2021 with a few MEDIUM and LARGE plants offered on auctions at the same time.
Description: 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.
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 Chelsea Flower Show in London, where it monopolised 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 at www.borneoexotics.com/files/rajburb.pdf. 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 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.
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 fibre potting media. Sphagnum or other recognised Nepenthes media should work even better.
*Please note that these plants are grown in extremely humid conditions and will require a period of acclimatization to your growing conditions. Photos are provided for reference and may not represent the size of plant you will receive.
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