Post by meizzwang on Sept 18, 2018 16:56:38 GMT -5
In case you missed the discussion somewhere on this forum, dark alatas can be hard to color up, especially outdoors. Under a greenhouse suntan, I think growers will have a much easier time getting them to turn almost black. There is a common factor that all dark alatas seem to share: freshly open pitchers, if they're not solid dark, will have an unusually larger amount of red pigments on them compared to non-color forms.
Of course, there are exceptions: I've seen populations of S. alata where every single plant had red or dark pitchers, but those traps were old and close to turning brown. New traps on some of those plants were totally green with no hints of red pigments, so you know the red coloration is more environmental. To add to the confusion, there are also alatas that do have some slight red pigments on newly opened traps, but from my experience, they only turn solid red or dark in late fall when there's high intensity light and cool nights (ie. S. alata clone A Stone Co, MS). Without a doubt, there are likely other environmental factors that can bring out the colors on these difficult to color up clones.
Now that you have some edgeabikation on red and dark alatas, here's S. alata 'DARK' Stone Co, MS. You probably are no longer wondering why this plant doesn't look dark right now (assuming the previous paragraphs were fully absorbed). These are new fall pitchers that just opened. Will they turn very dark as the traps age? I don't know. Last year, when they opened up, they were darker to begin with and they kept getting darker as they aged. I'm loving this color in any case, check out the green contrast! Reminds me of some minor okee giant clones.
Photos taken 9/17/18. Love this color!
crappy photo, but notice the black veins on the lid:
Of course, there are exceptions: I've seen populations of S. alata where every single plant had red or dark pitchers, but those traps were old and close to turning brown. New traps on some of those plants were totally green with no hints of red pigments, so you know the red coloration is more environmental. To add to the confusion, there are also alatas that do have some slight red pigments on newly opened traps, but from my experience, they only turn solid red or dark in late fall when there's high intensity light and cool nights (ie. S. alata clone A Stone Co, MS). Without a doubt, there are likely other environmental factors that can bring out the colors on these difficult to color up clones.
Now that you have some edgeabikation on red and dark alatas, here's S. alata 'DARK' Stone Co, MS. You probably are no longer wondering why this plant doesn't look dark right now (assuming the previous paragraphs were fully absorbed). These are new fall pitchers that just opened. Will they turn very dark as the traps age? I don't know. Last year, when they opened up, they were darker to begin with and they kept getting darker as they aged. I'm loving this color in any case, check out the green contrast! Reminds me of some minor okee giant clones.
Photos taken 9/17/18. Love this color!
crappy photo, but notice the black veins on the lid: