Utricularia sp??

From: Brian Kubicki (glass_frog_cr@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Oct 03 2000 - 22:14:02 PDT


Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 22:14:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Brian Kubicki <glass_frog_cr@yahoo.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2927$foo@default>
Subject: Utricularia sp??

Hello Everyone,

I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me out
with the identification of a small epiphytic
Utricularia (sp?) I collected a few weeks back.

I live in Costa Rica, and the area where I located
this small plant was at an elevation of nearly 2200
meters, in the area of Cerro la Muerte(SW of the
country). This is an area of cloud forest, and I was
actually in the area observing miniature orchids
species. I was walking down a small trail which leads
from the road, looking amongst the trees for any
miniature species. As I scanned about the shrubs and
foliage growing along the trial, I was surprised to
see a small flower of what resembled an Utricularia
sp. Upon further inspection I saw the characteristic
bladder structures along the tiny white roots. This
tiny plant was growing amongst mixed bryophytes on a
stem of a bambu(Chusquea sp??). The habitat was
heavily shaded. This tiny plant had a small flower
maybe 1 cm x 1cm, the color was nothing special,
tannish if I remeber correctly, but the flower
appeared somewhat older. The plant demonstrated a
creeping habit, slowly winding up and around the stem
of this Poaceae. The tiny "leaf" structures resemble a
miniature foliage type of for example U. praetermissa,
or U. endressi. The tiny "leaves" are approximately
1cm long x 4mm wide.

I only found this plant growing on a couple stems of
this one Poaceae plant. I collected one of the stem
sections to further study this small Utricularia sp,
and try to identify it. I cut approximately a 15 cm
section of stem with this plant growing on it. Upon
arriving home, I later cut this 15 cm stem into to two
small sections. One section is about 5cm long, and I
planted this section horizontally into a substrate of
1part peat and 1 part sand. I basically covered the
majority of the root network, and allowed only a small
upper section of the stem and a few "leaf" structures
to be exposed. The second section of stem was cut to
approximately 10 cms. I planted this second section
vertically, with the lower 2-3 cms buried into the
equal peat sand mixture, allowing the upper half to
rise out of the pot vertically. With the latter
section, there were several shorter sections of root,
and "leaves" which were hanging off, I simply placed
them under a dusting of the substrate. Both specimens
are doing really well, actually several sections of
exposed root structure have began to modify growth to
develop new little "leaves". I am happy to mention
that on the larger vertically positioned section of
stem there is a flower scape developing, I am
anxiously awaiting its flower to take photo
documentation. I want to see and document the
structure and coloration of the flower, maybe the one
I witnessed was old and dried.

Well, this is about all that I can really describe for
the moment. I will be taking photos here soon. I am
going to bring the specimen to the national herbarium,
and see if I can have better luck with its
identification. I have waited thus far to limit
stress on the plant due humidity fluxuations in
transport. I want to wait until after the flower has
hopefully developed, and after of course I have taken
several photos, to bring it in for further study. I
am also hoping to be able to obtain seed from this
tiny plant, I would appreciate any advice on how to
best polinate and obtain seed, and any types of
treatment of the seed for storage, and latter
germination. I also hope to collect enough seed to
maybe provide some to those who are interested. I am
also planning to try and collect seed from other
species of Utricularia here in the field. I would be
happy to provide seeds to anyone who is truly
interested in CR Utricularias, and would be even
happier to possibly trade for any seed from
neotropical Drosera sp or variations.

I have tried to identify the plant I found with the
available sources here, and have not found any species
which resembles what I found, especially from the
area???

If anyone may be able to help or have advice for this
little specimen please let me know. I would be happy
to send photos by email.

Thank you,

Brian Kubicki
Escuela de Biologi'a
Universidad Latina
San Jose, Costa Rica

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