FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi, I am extremely worried about my cephalotus follicularis. I got it in the mail a little over a week ago. I included a photo of how it looked when I received it. As you can see, a lot of the pitchers seem to be shriveling up! Additionally, some of the little pitchers in the back have some brown patches on them..

It is in a terrarium. I know that is unideal for it, but I really can't move it right now. I would like to try to fix it in the terrarium if I can. I understand now that it isn't good for it (I was told they do great there), and if it dies I will not be getting another one any time soon. I just want to try to keep it alive.

The humidity is always above 70%. It reaches into the 90s. I have a thermostat in there and I check it CONSTANTLY. The temperature is typically between 70-80F which should be good for it... I am not positive what it is at night when the lights are off because I have them on 16 hours a day and am asleep at that point. It does cool slightly- probably low 70s though. Soon it'll be winter here and I can try to get it to drop to high 60s.

I misted it once after like 7 days and then again a lot today and yesterday because I was scared I had underwatered the terrarium. Could this be sudden death from overwatering? Can two days of misting (like manually for 1 minute each time but I did it a few times during the day) be enough to kill it that quickly? how often should I mist its side of the terrarium? Do I need to actually pour distilled water on/around it or is misting enough? I do believe the substrate is still moist. I have a stick that measures soil and it says the soil around the ceph is moist. Not dry, not wet. There's also condensation around the substrate. I do also have a drainage layer at the bottom and it is planted on a mound so I feel like it really shouldn't be at a super high risk of root rot but I don't know. My other concern is that maybe my grow lights were too close to it and either heated it up too much or burned it with too much light? I had the grow light like maybe 6 inches above it, very bright. But it is just one of those LED lights from amazon. They do get pretty bright and I had two over the terrarium, now I've added a third to boost my sundews a bit (they were okay, but could've used a little more light). Do you think maybe I should have the grow light further away from the pitcher? Is there anything I can do to help it while it is in the terrarium?

Oh, also, the terrarium has been closed at night because of my cats but I'm going to leave it open tonight and hopefully going forward because they don't seem interested at all and can't easily get to it anyway (also the grow lights block their access). I'm adding isopods and springtails soon, so I'm not sure how I'll figure that out (maybe at mesh). But generally I keep it open all day so it gets good ventilation. I sometimes have a ceiling fan on which adds extra draft. I monitor the humidity levels very frequently to make sure this doesn't harm them. I'm so worried about my plant . Is there anything I can do??

Erm it's hard to tell from the photos but I don't see any brown spots. You do have a fun black cultivar so it would seem. Here's some other that have a similar coloration of pitchers:

https://auctions.afimg.jp/k1012556393/y ... 6393.2.jpg
https://carnivorousplantresource.com/wp ... ularis.jpg

A few things to note about Cephalotus from both experience and general care:

1. Cephalotus follicularis doesn't like both it's roots and leaves to be constantly wet
   Misting the plant isn't really recommended.
2. Cephalotus follicularis doesn't like it when it's shipped or repotted
   If you just got it you'll probably see some pitchers dry up, and it looks like the plant is still making pitchers.
3. Younger Cephalotus follicularis are really slow growing
   Yours looks a little younger so any new pitcher/leaf growth will take like a month or two to finish.

Other than that it seem like you're doing everything right. I have just 1 Ceph and I think the "sudden death" thing is a bit overblown. Mine wasn't doing too hot months after being shipped to be and being put in a bigger pot, and it's just now starting to do better. So give it time.

The other thing is with lights. At least according to some growers:

• The closer the light, the more color you'll see in the pitchers
• The further the light, the pitchers might be a smidge bigger but not as deep of color

If the plant is recovering from shipping shock you could move your lights back just a little bit. I put mine alongside my Nepenthes while it was recovering, so you can think of "bright shade" or "indirect light" as the lighting you could give it. But I also don't know if that was a big factor in the recovery or not.

The easiest thing I can tell you to do is give it time. It sucks to see some pitchers dry up, but it's part of the process the plant goes through.

Thank you so much for responding. That makes me feel a lot better. The black spots are more like brown patches on the little baby pitchers in the back. I tried to circle one of them and attached it here. That's super cool to hear I have a color variant (explains why they're darker than a lot of pictures I see). That first picture looks a lot like them which is reassuring!

I'll hold off on misting the plant . I try to avoid it and instead mist the moss in between my plants but it is so hard to aim with a mister lol. I'm thinking of using a pipette for watering instead. That's also good to hear about the slow growth and that it could just be shock from the move.

Also, okay, super relieving to hear you say that about the sudden death thing. I'm so worried about it randomly dropping dead haha. I will just tell myself the pitcher drying up is from the move, and I'll move the light back a bit from it just to give it some recovery time.

lcal101 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2023 3:48 pm The black spots are more like brown patches on the little baby pitchers in the back. I tried to circle one of them and attached it here.

It's possible you might lose some smaller pitchers that came with the plant when it was shipped, too. Again it's unfortunate but it's kind of a "it is what it is" thing.

lcal101 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2023 3:48 pm Also, okay, super relieving to hear you say that about the sudden death thing. I'm so worried about it randomly dropping dead haha.

I mean it's definitely something that can happen, but you'd probably have to be water logging the plant. If mine didn't keel over and die after shipping shock, unnecessarily dousing it in fungicide and repotting, yours is probably fine.

lcal101 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2023 3:48 pm That's super cool to hear I have a color variant (explains why they're darker than a lot of pictures I see). That first picture looks a lot like them which is reassuring!

There are some registered black cultivars, 'Eden Black' and 'OG Black', but you usually have to pay a pretty penny for those. Unless you bought it from a sucker or someone who just didn't know, which is entirely possible. The only reason you'd have to worry about them being black is if the pitchers were mushy, but the pitchers look like they've kept their form and the lips on the pitchers look firm. Some will still dry up and make way for new ones, but there's not anything you can or should try do about it.

Interesting! I got it from here: https://carnivorousplantnursery.com/pro ... 4441484351 It was still bloody expensive (got the medium size- never spent so much on a plant before) but it does look like the ones in the other reviews and the photos are a different color from mine haha. Mine was extremely dark when it arrived (the "healthydays" picture in my original post is from the day it arrived). They're definitely very firm/not mushy at all . That's a relief to hear!

I bought my small plant from CPN about 6 moths or so ago. I have come to one conclusion. Leave it alone. If it looks good, is getting watered the way it is supposed to then just leave it alone. I leave mine and it s doing great.

lcal101 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 04, 2023 3:36 pm Interesting! I got it from here: https://carnivorousplantnursery.com/pro ... 4441484351 It was still bloody expensive (got the medium size- never spent so much on a plant before) but it does look like the ones in the other reviews and the photos are a different color from mine haha.

Hm, well, I guess you lucked out and just got one that has dark pitchers. Lucky you!