Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 22:04:01 +1000 From: r.jobson@botany.uq.edu.au To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2150$foo@default> Subject: for the birds
> I think your description of bird transfer is pretty together.
Straight out of Taylor's monograph!
> evolution of landscapes is unfortunately scanty with regards to bird
> and utricularia fossils as supporting evidence.
> it is possible through the careful analysis of coot poop, and offer it
> as a verifiable model. However, the research isn't coming any time
> soon to coincide bird species diversity with spatial analysis of the
> distribution of aldrovonda. The baseline data is no where close to
> anything but ancecdotes on a listserve.
So far it seems so. However, there have been some good ideas on
the list recently. Difficult to get a lucid picture after millions of years
of change.
>
> You wrote: "Also I remember Darwin did a small experiment with sea
> water and found that for long periods? Utricularia seed survived? Can
> some one add to this?"
>
> Depends what you mean by add, I may be able to pile it higher and
> deeper at no charge. Sounds like he was hallucinatin' on the Beagle.
He Probably was, then again it may have been Gluck or Goebel,
hence the ??. Then again Darwin tried everything from the kitchen
sink to urine (his own I guess? don't try this at home) on Drosera
leaves so why not Utric seeds in sea water? Who ever it was was
wondering about dispersion across oceans. I was not
dreaming...then again.
>
> Tell me more about this memory of yours and I'll jump ahead a chapter
> in Darwin's book on Insectivorous Plants and get back to you.
>
> I'll be happy to try out some of those "abuse your gibba" experiments.
> I'll desicate some, but give me the protocol so you can compare my
> results with yours. Maybe I should deep fry a few and lay to rest the
> theory they spread from donut shop to donut shop. They definitely
> don't survive my neighbor's dog lapping them up out of my collection.
I have not tried the dog experiment but anyway I went away for 5
months and my container of U. gibba dried out completely, the
peat at the bottom was bone dry. Tiny fragments must have
remained viable. One of Pringsheim's papers talks about this for U.
exoleta (syn. U. gibba). Winston and Gorman 1979 also discuss
desiccation in Utricularia.
>
> Until then I'm hybridizing my french-tickler-with-ribs nepenthes for
> fun and profit. ;)
Sounds exciting, how much?
Richard.
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