- First described
- 2012
- Type
- single clone lineage
Origin
A long-standing California Carnivores cuprea clone with a quirky human-naming history. The plant first entered cultivation through CC in the 1990s. Bill Hoyer — a childhood friend of Mike Wang — bought a division of it as a young customer at the nursery; when Hoyer left for college, he gave the plant back to CC where it has lived ever since (post #1, 2012). The clone has been distributed widely from that single CC stock ever since.
Mike's pre-CC provenance hypothesis (post #4, 2014): originated from Bob Hanrahan in the 1980s. Not verified.
History
- 1980s [VERIFY]: putative Hanrahan introduction.
- 1990s: enters California Carnivores. Bill Hoyer purchases a division.
- Late 1990s [VERIFY]: Hoyer returns the plant to CC at college departure. Plant remains in CC stock thereafter.
- 2012-08-06 (post #1): Mike posts the clone with the lineage story; describes the CC mother as 40+ pitchers / 2'+ tall.
- 2014-04: multiple growers (Calen, davidgreen, goodkoalie) post divisions; Damon's spring-2014 batch produced ~20 divisions sold rapidly.
- 2018-04 (post #16): Mike's essay on cuprea phenotype variability — defends keeping the clone as cuprea despite occasionally red bodies under cold-spring + bright-sun conditions.
- 2019 updates with regular flowering.
- 2022-05 (post #24): Damon's quoted assessment — best cuprea clone in cultivation.
- 2025-05-20 (post #27): Mike showcases the size — wind-knocked trap as evidence of how tall the mature traps grow.
Standout traits
- Vigor + ultimate size: 40+ pitchers, 2'+ tall when mature (post #1; post #27 reaffirms in 2025).
- Coppery top, sometimes red body: classic cuprea + bonus cold-spring red body. Mike's 2018 photos are the canonical red-body example.
- Reliable flowering: regular spring blooms; occasionally the first Sarracenia flower of the year in Mike's collection.
- Slight lid ruffle (Calen, 2014).
- Climate-tolerant: vigorous in Cincinnati (sidorian, 2022).
Cultivation notes
A "best practice" cuprea — easy to color up, vigorous, large ultimate size. Phenotypic plasticity in body color is normal and expected; cold spring + bright sun amplifies red body, normal conditions produce cleaner copper-only tops.
For sourcing: California Carnivores stock is the canonical lineage. Periodic batch propagations have made the clone available roughly every couple of years through 2025.
Photos
35 Mike-Wang photos spanning 2012 → 2025-05.
Standout traits
- Forms gigantic specimen plants — the CC mother had 40+ mature pitchers, each 2'+ tall (post #1, 2012)
- Damon (CC owner) considers it the best cuprea clone in cultivation: ease of coloring up, vigor, ultimate size (per Mike, post #24, 2022)
- Mike (post #9, 2014): 'better than my best clone' (i.e. flava 'best clone')
- Coppery top + occasional red body under cold/bright spring conditions — Mike's 2018 commentary (post #16) defends keeping it as cuprea despite occasional 'atropurpurea-like' bodies
- Slight ruffle to the lid — Calen (post #3, 2014)
- Vigorous even in tougher climates (sidorian, Cincinnati, post #25, 2022) — most pitchers of any of his flavas
Cultivation
Vigorous and tolerant. CC reportedly produced ~20 divisions in ~2014 (davidgreen, post #12); Damon was making large batches at this clone's peak distribution period.
Phenotypic plasticity is a feature, not a bug: this clone reliably develops a coppery top under normal conditions and adds variable red body coloration under cold spring weather + bright sun (Mike's 2018 essay, post #16). Most cuprea clones in fact color up some, Mike argues — calling them atropurpurea on that basis would collapse the variety.
Sidorian (Cincinnati, 2022) confirms vigor outside California: produced more pitchers than any other flava in his collection after a winter division. The clone tolerates "tough spring conditions."
cocles (post #28, 2025) — under more intense sun (Mediterranean CA / Australia) the clone shows a "cut-throat" pattern; described as less intense than rugelii Clone A's cut-throat.
Photos (33)
Naming
Named for Bill Hoyer, longtime California Carnivores customer and childhood friend of Mike Wang. Hoyer purchased the original division from CC's in the 1990s; when he left for college, he returned the plant to CC's, where it has remained ever since (post #1). Peter D'Amato refers to him as "Little Billy Hoyer" (post #19, 2019). Hoyer went on to study plants at Cornell and was, last Mike heard (2019), doing scientific work on a California offshore island.