Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 09:18:34 -0700 From: Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1435$foo@default> Subject: re: Oldest CP
Hi Jason and all,
Jason wrote:
>All this talk of earth ages has me wondering, does anyone have a
plausible
>idea of what would be the "oldest" CP in the world? Somewhere I seem to
>recall that some form of Aldrovanda might be the progenitor of the CPs
we
>have today but I'd really like to know. Is there some place scientists
can
>identify as the fountainhead of CPs? Is there any particular single
species
>that gave rise to all others? What is the "Lucy" of CPs? How old are
they?
>What period did they come from? Are there any back issues of the
newsletter
>that mention this?
Ivan here,
I can't tell you what the oldest now living species of CP is, but I think
we would all agree that the most primitive or simple CP is a bromiliad
such as Brochinia or Catopsis. I think probably the oldest family of CP
is the butterwort family ( butterworts, Genlisea, Utricularia ) since
they are the most diverse. The sundew family in which some include
Aldrovanda is also very diverse, but not quite so much. The most simple
of the butterwort family are the butterworts. I don't believe these were
around during the dinosaur reign. The butterwort is most primitive
because there are living noncarnivorous plants which are very similar and
possibly closely related. I think butterworts and the Figwort Family,
Scrophulariaceae, and also the Devil's Claw ( Martyniaceae ) are closely
allied. I see much similarity between butterworts and monkey flowers,
genus Mimulus. The monkey flower and Devil's Claw have a very similar
flower arrangement to the butterworts. The only differences are that in
Mimulus and Martynia, the bilobed stigma is stalked and there are two
pair of stamens compared to one in Pinguicula and Martynia. In
conclusion, we can not appreciate our carnivorous plants for the same
reason as your dinosaur aged plants.
Ivan Snyder
Hermosa Beach
California
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:35:08 PST