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Alien versus Jaws Smiley


FlytrapCare

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Someone on another forum asked about the "Jaws Smiley" flytrap cultivar. I responded that, as far as I can tell, "Jaws Smiley" is nearly identical to 'Alien' and I promised to take a few photos of both for comparison sake. We (FlytrapStore.com) plan to only propagate and offer 'Alien' since it is the officially registered cultivar. I figured I may as well post the comparison photos here as well :) Below are the promised photos of "Jaws Smiley" and 'Alien'. The biggest difference I can see in the plants is the shape of the teeth, which I think look much more menacing on 'Alien'.

Alien on the left, Jaws Smiley on the right

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Largest trap on my 'Alien' mother plant

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Closeup of 'Alien' "teeth"

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Close up of 'Alien' trap interior. Notice the multiple small hairs in the bottom of the trap showing up as little red dots.

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"Jaws Smiley"

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Close up of "Jaws Smiley" trap interior. It even has the small hairs in the bottom of the trap just like 'Alien'.

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I'd love to hear other opinions and experiences with these two interesting cultivars.

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I would say Jaws smiley is easier and more vigorous ,last year my plant produced one trap that was just over 1 1/2 " . This same issue can be said regarding Green Wizzard and Coquillage, now some will say Green Wizzard stays green and that is the difference, but mine doesn't

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and it gets darker than that.

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Alien often has the membranous growths on the teeth. I havent seen these growths on Jaws Smiley.

I agree but my point was, could these two plants have possibly derived from the same tissue and the mutations grew slightly differently as they gained maturity?

Did they both even originate from tissue culture?

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Your plants always look so healthy, do you put it down to that moss ??

I think it has more to do with the watering technique I use rather than the media. I try to keep the soil just moist and not too wet. This seems to promote the healthiest growth in flytraps. But the moss has proven to be a superior medium for us so far over peat-based media. We'll have to see how this summer goes with the intense heat and dryness. I think it's going to be challenging to keep the plants damp enough.

Did they both even originate from tissue culture?

I don't know the origins of Jaws Smiley. It could very well be a seedling of Alien. I'd guess that "Green Wizzard" is a seedling of Coquillage. I have quite a few seedlings from Coquillage crosses that look much like Coquillage with varying degrees of coloration. Alien was found by Guillaume at the Carniflora open day, so my guess is that it was started in tissue culture by that company or by whoever they purchase flytraps from.

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Hi,

thank you for sharing the interesting comparison.

I am growing Jaws Smiley more than one year and I can say that this plant is very nice and middle-growing (not so fast, but not so slow growing) plant. But the surprise for me was that the plant is relatively big compared to another mutants. :)

Edited by Petr
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  • 2 months later...

It's the teeth that differ. Alien's teeth are sturdier looking and also has some 'micro teeth' (I made up that term). I don't grow either yet but that's from observations I made in Tim Bailey's and Stewart McPherson's book.

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Thanks I've looked at that site but no idea how you order things :S

Or how to contact Trev probably just me being thick

Trev doesn't have an online ordering system in the more common sense. Like PJ Plants you have to email him. You'll find the email link in the link that SilentGuy posted. He's a lovely guy and even if the plant isn't listed on his website there's still a good chance that he has it. Trev created several plants that are sought after today, including Dracula.

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