Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2000 10:12:47 -0800 From: Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3205$foo@default> Subject: re: Giant D. burmannii
>I'm fascinated by the D. burmannii you described. Ever since I heard how
fast it
>moves, I'd wanted to get one. However, some on the CP list advised that
it
>wasn't that exciting, since it was such a small plant.
>Are you confident that your plants are 'normal', but have become big
just
>because of extra food?
>Regards
>Edwin
>Bath, UK.
Hi Edwin and all,
I have seen my form of D. burmannii from Beerwah in others collections
here in Southern California. Most of the plants are small in comparison
to my now 5.5 cm diameter (not counting tentacles) plant. I have grown
other forms which got to the most 3.5 cm. I did not think of this before,
but maybe the form from Beerwah is able to grow the largest. I saw the
species at two other sites further south in the Sydney region and these
were smaller than at the Beerwah site. I figured it was just an
environmental thing, though at all three places the plants were in fully
cleared open areas with all day full sun. In Alan Lowrie's book he says
he has seen D. burmannii up to 4 cm in diameter, and my friend Robert
Gibson who sees lots of them tells me he has only seen them up to 4 cm as
well. Was I just lucky to have stumbled upon the site of the largest
form? Another unsubstantiated report came from another aquaintance Robert
Shands who used to live in Australia. He had a look at my 5 cm plant and
told me he had seen a plant twice as large. He claimed that he found it
in a ditch at the back of the fairgrounds at Redcliff which is near
Beerwah in the Brisbane area. I think maybe he was a little drunk, but I
suppose it's possible. Imagine that, a 10 cm plant, what a monster that
would be! I could use something like that to capture these pesky
africanized killer bees. Anyway, somebody call Guinness, 5.5 cm seems to
be the record for D. burmannii:-)
Ivan Snyder
Hermosa Beach
California
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