Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 11:21:18 -0700 From: Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2770$foo@default> Subject: New Natural Hybrid Discovered
Hi CPers,
I have recently discovered a natural sundew hybrid here in California
which I believe has not been reported before. After attending the CP
World Conference in San Francisco in June this year, my friend Ed Read
and I travelled north to Mendocino County for a camping and hiking
outing. We spent a few days exploring the woods around there in search of
new carnivorous plant sites. Having done that to our satisfaction we
visited once again the well known Albion Pygmy Forest Bog. This
particular site has only one native sundew, Drosera rotundifolia, as well
as a number of introduced alien species, including the South African D.
capensis in great abundance. This bog had been seeded with the aliens as
experiments to see what would grow there and has in my opinion become an
ecological catastrophe; D. capensis has run amuck. Although not pleased
with the sight of the aliens, I was keen to learn the impact they are
having in the ecology. For those of you Johnny Sundew Seeds who may read
this, I have more to report on the scope of your mistake.
Me being the guru of sundew hybridization I searched all around looking
over thousands of plants in search of a hybrid between the native D.
rotundifolia and alien D. capensis. I did not find a single plant with
intermediate characteristics. I have heard of this hybrid being
artificially made, and also I figure it is possible since we know that D.
capensis does cross with D. spatulata, and spatulata in turn does cross
with rotundifolia. Not finding a hybrid, I gave up searching thinking the
two species for some reason could not cross pollinate. Before leaving the
bogland I collected a ripe flower scape from D. rotundifolia with seed
for sowing at home. I enjoy growing anything I collect as a momento.
>From much experiance I have learned that the best way to sow D.
rotundifolia seed is to sow on peat and refrigerate for one month. I then
put the container under my lighting system and germination begins about a
week later. Strangely, I noticed the first few leaves of the seedlings
were longer and not rounded as in another batch of D. rotundifolia seed
from another location I had started in separate cup. I soon realized that
what I had was a hybrid. Now larger, the hybrids have a leaf shape which
is oblong-oval and intermediate between rotundifolia and capensis. There
were a great number of capensis around, but I could be wrong and maybe
some other alien species is the paternal parent.
The hybrid is slower and more weakly growing but has good color (not
anemic as in some hybrids) so I expect these will reach maturity. Perhaps
this is the reason I did not find any of the hybrids at the bog. Can we
say this a *natural hybrid*? I call this hybrid D. x albionensis. Maybe I
will officially name it later if does well enough in cultivation. I am
sending seed to a couple of people that do tissue culture. I expect the
hybrid will start well invitro. I will report more on how it goes.
Ivan Snyder
Hermosa Beach
California
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