Twist in Darlingtonia pitchers

[fredg]

A few years ago I was surfing Carnivorous Plant nurseries and noticed that in the US some Carnivorous Plant suppliers were offering Darlingtonia plants with Clockwise and Anticlockwise twist. I was intrigued as to why. There hasn't been a flood of cultivars ofDarlingtonia as with some other genera. So I surmised it was to try to get growers to buy one of each type ( doubling sales).

I did notice at the time that I had both twists in one of my colonies and I published some photos of this.

Today I was looking again and found examples of both twists all over the various colonies. Even Othello which is definitely just the one clone has both twists amongst the various plants.


Here's a few examples

[stevebooth]

Interesting, are these stable twists or can it vary from year to year or with orientation? I cannot for the life of me think of any great advantage for developing a twist one way or the other. I have also heard that the first pitcher supposedly orientates itself North to South then the next East to West, however the ones I have seem to have lost thier internal compas, or perhaps its the magnets I put under the pots that confusses em.

Cheers
Steve

[fredg]

Steve, so far I've got to the fact that it's not genetic. I'm not sure if I want to start separating plants and moving them around. I do have to say that I've not had a singular plant change twist direction from one year to another, only a change on the end of a stolon.