Question
So I know you guys don't identify plants anymore which is fine. My question is about flava phyllodia vs. oreophila phyllodia. Are there lots of variations in phyllodia throughout the flava forms? Aren't they supposed to be straight and the oreophila curved? I have a plant that was marketed as a Flava, the guy I got it from grew it from seed he got for you guys many years ago. About 8 to be more precise.  The pitchers look like flava a bit the phyllodia is curved, and purple. I thought only oreophila did that. All the pictures I've seen on the Internet of phyllodia on flava and oreophila make me think I actually have an oreophila, perhaps it's some kind of hybrid of the two? Or am I putting too much stock into the look of the phyllodia and there is as much variation in the phyllodia as there are in pitcher coloration in flava. I have some oreophila seedlings but they're not outside yet and have never produced phyllodia so far. I just got an AG3 clone from you guys and I would definitely call those phyllodia straight especially compared to the one I'm talking about. I'd add pics but can't seem to upload them. So guess I am asking you to identify my plant in a round about way but I'm more trying to understand the differences and hope to be able to tell at a glance for myself in the future. No one seems to spend a lot of time discussing the phyllodia. Thanks for your time!

Answer
Hi Robbie,

To answer your first question, yes, there is quite a bit of variation on the phyllodia shapes of both S. flava and S. oreophila.  Oreophila phyllodia are usually described as "sickle shape" in most literature.  I found in our plants that they can be downright curly, or elongated, but having that distinct "half-moon" shape.  Different clones from different geographic populations will have different looking phyllodia just like the pitchers.  All of this is even more true for flava since it is much more abundant, and has many more colors and clones.  Generally flava phyllodia will be more spear shaped.

Now to make matters worse, hybrids between the two are super common.  Both plants bloom at the same time, and have yellow flowers, so the hybridize super easy.

To give you more information about your plants I will need to see a photo or two.  Descriptions are going to be too hard to make a call on.

Let me know if I can help guide you on uploading photos if you're having trouble.  One piece of advice I'd give is that it's much easier to upload photos from a computer.  If you can send photos from a smart phone to a computer, then do your post, it often works better with Allexperts.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com