Nano Nursery · Rare Carnivorous Plant Encyclopedia
Cephalotus follicularis is one species with a remarkably varied cultivated history. Some selections emphasise dark colour or large pitchers; others have miniature pitchers, unusually shaped leaves or a lid held in a different position. This guide compares nineteen documented cultivar names from the CPN archive and the ICPS names resource, checked on 2 October 2026. Each account retains the distinction between a named selection and a feature that can occur in other plants.
How to read a cultivar diagnosis
A useful diagnosis combines several characters with a documented source. Measurements below are those reported for the author’s material. They are not universal thresholds, and a height that includes the lid cannot be compared directly with one measured only to the peristome, the toothed rim around the opening.
All nineteen accounts specify vegetative propagation, either in the original description or in the cited registry entry. Seedlings can have recorded cultivar parents without being the same cultivated selection. The following groups are a reading order, not new botanical ranks or a ranking of commercial value.
Hummer’s Giant: the established large-pitcher selection
John Hummer’s 2000 description traces the material to plants received from Steve Beckwith in Adelaide in 1986. The selected line produced pitchers around 6 cm long and 2.5 cm wide; Hummer also reported larger pitchers grown by another cultivator. Vegetative stock had already been distributed before the name was formally proposed. [1]
Hummer described long-term indoor cultivation without deliberately imposing a cool dormancy. That observation should not become a universal requirement for constant warmth. More fundamentally, an unusually large unnamed Cephalotus is not thereby ‘Hummer’s Giant’: size is a phenotype, while the denomination identifies a documented cultivated line.
Dudley Watts: a thick peristome and a constricted opening
Stephen Morley obtained this clone from Dudley Watts in the late 1980s; its published description formalised the familiar name in 2014. The account highlights a thick, substantial peristome, a slightly constricted mouth and a crinkled front. One reference pitcher measured 59 mm high, with the peristome occupying about 17% of that height. [2]
Those proportions make the comparison more useful than the phrase large and dark alone. Morley reported vigorous growth and vegetative propagation by leaves, rhizomes or division. His greenhouse observations describe one successful system, rather than proving a unique optimum for the cultivar.
Eden Black: colour with an explicitly uncertain pedigree
Morley’s 2006 description emphasises exceptionally dark pitchers under the same conditions as comparison clones. It records relatively smooth, elongated pitchers, a wide mouth and colour spreading from the peristome across the pitcher and lid. The original seedling’s exact parentage—selfing or crossing—was not known. [3]
That uncertainty belongs in its history. Later seedlings from ‘Eden Black’ are not automatically ‘Eden Black’, even when they inherit dark pigmentation. The author requires vegetative propagation and notes that colour can take time to recover after disturbance. This helps separate temporary appearance from permanent identity.
OG Black: dark colour and a different pitcher outline
Brian Lipinski’s 2020 account describes a vigorous clone acquired in 2007, later traced to Allen Lowrie. Its mature pitchers have a kidney-like outline, partly reflexed lids and pronounced lateral wing tips near the peristome. Colour differed between outdoor sun and artificial lighting. Vegetative propagation is required. [4]
This combination matters more than the shared word Black. Keep ‘OG Black’ distinct from ‘Eden Black’; neither name is a general category for very dark Cephalotus.
Black Lip: a small pitcher with a conspicuous rim
Alexander Fisch selected ‘Black Lip’ from material obtained from Allen Lowrie in 2015. The 2025 description records small pitchers up to 3.5 cm, green below and maroon above, with an almost black rim. Non-carnivorous leaves are small, oval and dark green. Vegetative reproduction preserves the selection. [5]
The reference to Lowrie is provenance, not evidence that every plant distributed by him belongs to this cultivar.
Big Mouth: a broad opening from Eden Black offspring
The same 2025 publication describes ‘Big Mouth’, grown from selfed ‘Eden Black’ seed by Kai Becker in 2011 and acquired by Fisch in 2017. Its earlier label was “Edens Child Clone 2 Big Mouth”. A broad opening and dark-red to later maroon pitchers characterise the selection. It must be propagated vegetatively. [5]
The historical clone label connects this plant to its description; it does not make the entire seed batch one cultivar.
Bananito: an elongated pitcher
Erio Piacenti’s 2016 description follows a plant selected from four seedlings of selfed ‘Eden Black’ received in 2012. Its conspicuously elongated, banana-like pitchers retained their shape indoors and outdoors, and the name was coined in 2014. The author specifies vegetative propagation. [6]
This is another example of distinctive offspring receiving its own identity. It is not a synonym of its parent cultivar, and an elongated pitcher alone cannot reconstruct a lost clonal history.
Elizabeth: an upright lid
Christina Toole’s 2018 description identifies an unusually upright lid that flattens and may form a central notch. The pitchers also have a strongly defined peristome and conspicuous hairiness. Average adult pitcher height was about 5 cm without the lid and 7 cm including it. [7]
The author reported dark colour in strong light, relatively few non-carnivorous leaves and successful pitcher pullings. Vegetative propagation is required. When comparing the lid, use mature, undamaged pitchers; a lid displaced during handling is not an equivalent diagnostic feature.
Round Leaf Big Daddy: remember the flat leaves
Fisch’s 2017 description records broad pitchers around 5 × 3 cm and nearly circular non-carnivorous leaves reaching about 3 cm across. The plant remained largely green in summer and became darker in cold conditions. Leaf cuttings were successful in the author’s cultivation. [8]
The rounded flat leaves are important: an identification based only on a pitcher photograph would omit the feature expressed in the name. The reported growth rate is an observation from that collection, not a delivery timetable for a newly established cutting.
Squat: a distinctive short outline
Dimitar Daskalov’s 2021 description traces ‘Squat’ to the late Dennis Hastings collection. Its pitchers are broad and short, with a horizontal projection below the peristome, a rounded lower portion and short, thin peristome teeth. The unusual outline is visible while pitchers develop. [9]
Vegetative propagation is required. Squat-shaped is a useful descriptive adjective, but applying the formal cultivar denomination also requires a reliable identity.
Giant Squat: similar proportions, different scale
Fisch’s June 2026 account describes a plant acquired through another German grower in 2020. Pitchers measure about 2.5 × 3 cm and accompany comparatively large non-carnivorous leaves. The comparison with ‘Squat’ concerns similar pitcher proportions at a larger size; green pitchers darkened later in the year. [10]
The original supplier chain is incomplete beyond the reported purchase history. The name does not establish descent from ‘Squat’. As with the other selections, propagation must be vegetative.
Tom Thumb: miniature pitchers with a tapered base
Carl Leach and Dimitar Daskalov’s 2021 account follows a clone received in Europe from a US grower, with its earlier source unknown. Pitchers typically measured no more than 1.5 cm from base to peristome and had an acutely tapered, hooked base. Colour was explicitly excluded from the defining diagnosis because it varied with conditions. [11]
The cultivar’s small size was retained in the author’s collection, but all comparisons should still control environment and maturity. It is not interchangeable with another small cultivar merely because their folklore-inspired names sound related.
Thumbelina: a compact Northcliffe-derived selection
Rob Maharajh’s 2024 description traces ‘Thumbelina’ to an unusual Northcliffe clone supplied by Allen Lowrie in 2019. The account records plants around 3.5 cm across and pitchers approximately 2 × 1 cm, with proportionately small flat leaves and strong dark pigmentation under LEDs. Vegetatively propagated plants retained these features. [12]
Its reported origin distinguishes its history from ‘Tom Thumb’. The proposed adaptive explanation for its small stature remains a hypothesis; a cultivar description is not an experiment establishing why a wild population evolved a trait.
Allen Lowrie: a named selection, not a supplier category
Fisch’s March 2026 description selects one plant from three obtained from Lowrie in 2015. Pitchers reach about 2.5 cm; the lid underside can be very pale or white, while good light and cold conditions produce dark-red pitchers with a blackened peristome. Lanceolate flat leaves and occasional hairy protrusions on pitcher fronts complete the account. [13]
The author describes slow development from leaf cuttings and requires vegetative propagation. The name honours Lowrie; it should not be retroactively assigned to unrelated plants carrying his name only as their supplier.
Kai’s Error: mostly non-carnivorous leaves
Fisch’s 2021 account describes a selfed ‘Eden Black’ seedling raised by Kai Becker in 2011, formerly labelled “Eden’s Child Clone 3”. It produces mainly small lanceolate leaves, with occasional tiny, often malformed pitchers. The plant grows slowly; propagation is vegetative, and the author found leaf cuttings difficult. [14]
This diagnosis should not be used to rename an ordinary plant that temporarily stops producing pitchers. Loss of normal growth through unsuitable conditions is not evidence of this particular cultivar.
Clayton’s T Rex: rare, backward-sloping abnormal pitchers
Colin Clayton’s 2013 description records occasional abnormal pitchers projecting horizontally and sloping backwards, with horn-like structures instead of a conventional lid. Normal pitchers are also produced. The description did not establish whether the unusual structures function as carnivorous traps. Vegetative propagation maintains the clone. [15]
The word occasional matters: a plant need not display the unusual structure on every leaf to match the account. Equally, a single damaged pitcher on another plant does not establish this identity.
Donna’s Destiny, Jason’s Arks and Tina’s Hallelujah Trumpets
The ICPS names resource reproduces diagnoses from Clayton’s 2011 publication on abnormal Cephalotus leaves and records registration in 2013. ‘Donna’s Destiny’ has upright, open-ended, two-horned structures facing out from the crown. ‘Jason’s Arks’ produces small, horizontal, boat-like leaves with upward-facing depressions of variable depth. ‘Tina’s Hallelujah Trumpets’ produces small upright funnels facing into the crown. All require vegetative propagation. [16]
These are three separate identities, not synonyms for any malformed leaf. The published diagnoses did not establish carnivorous function for the unusual structures. Suggestions that such shapes reveal ancestral evolutionary stages should not be presented as demonstrated evolutionary history.
Comparing a collection without losing its history
The strongest comparisons follow repeated mature growth under similar conditions. Record the measurement endpoints, include both pitcher and non-carnivorous leaves, and photograph a side view as well as the opening. These steps cannot prove a genotype, but they reduce misleading comparisons caused by different stages or camera angles.
None of these cultivar accounts establishes a separate conservation category or current nursery availability. Their published cultivation observations should remain attributed to the author and environment involved. The original images are linked in the sources; they have not been reproduced in this draft. This dated guide covers the nineteen names captured in the checked indexes and database, while private trade labels still require their own evidence.
Sources
- John Hummer (2000), Hummer’s Giant, CPN 29:119–122
- Stephen Morley (2014), Dudley Watts, Planta Carnivora 35:42–43
- Stephen Morley (2006), original Eden Black description
- Brian Lipinski (2020), OG Black, CPN 49:87–88
- Alexander Fisch (2025), Big Mouth and Black Lip, CPN 54:153–154
- Erio Piacenti (2016), Bananito, CPN 45
- Christina Toole (2018), Elizabeth, CPN 47:126
- Alexander Fisch (2017), Round Leaf Big Daddy, CPN 46:81–83
- Dimitar Daskalov (2021), Squat, CPN 50:87
- Alexander Fisch (2026), Giant Squat, CPN 55:94
- Carl Leach and Dimitar Daskalov (2021), Tom Thumb, CPN 50
- Rob Maharajh (2024), Thumbelina, CPN 53:149–150
- Alexander Fisch (2026), Allen Lowrie, CPN 55:28
- Alexander Fisch (2021), Kai’s Error, CPN 50:36
- Colin Clayton (2013), Clayton’s T Rex, CPN 42:145
- ICPS Carnivorous Plant Names Resource: Clayton cultivars and original diagnostic extracts
Sources checked 2 October 2026. Diagnostic photographs and owner release review pending.
