Re: Aquatic Utrics

John Taylor [The Banshee] (rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.OZ.AU)
Fri, 26 Feb 93 08:45:01 +0000

>>Initially, we didn't have any success with aquatic Utrics - we were
>>using the Slack "peat-tea" method. The best success we've had is to
>>grow them in the water trays of the terrestrial Utrics! So far, one
>>particular plant has been the only one to flower, but it's been
>>continuously flowering for months now!
>
>
>Let me guess...is this Utric a stringy mat-forming plant without any
>bushy leaves---just a mass of stolons with pairs of threadlike leaves
>emerging from the stolons, maybe branching a few times? And is the
>upper lip of the flower bigger than the lower lip?

Could be (I can't remember exactly - I'll check tonight)... The flowers
are yellow with some reddish flecks on the corolla, with the typical
snapdragon shape, but I don't think the upper lip was the larger one.
Hopefully there will be a few flowers left for me to check. We have a
few species - U. australis naturally, plus some other unknowns
(supposedly U. vulgaris (doesn't look like it), U. fibrosa? and one we
found locally, but believe is introduced from somewhere - I forget the
name of the likely species. This one forms very thick mats of green
stolons with small traps)

>>Are Planaria worms the little flat worms (about 1/2" x 1/8" approx??) We've
>Planaria are very distinctive, shaped like so..
>
> /\
> / \
> / OO \ <--note eye-spots
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> | |
> \ /
> \/
>and with the dimensions you described. These are the critters that are
>trained to wince at light flashes (associating them with electric
>shocks administered by bored lab assistants).

Cute picture - I think that's them (again, I haven't seen one for a while -
I'm afraid the greenhouse has been neglected a bit lately :-( )

>Yesterday I was potting some newly arrived plants when I looked in my
>pot of _U.inflata_ `Washington State' and thrilled to see a tiny
>embryonic flower bud forming. I am very excited about this. This is a
>species that produces a fascinating array of flotation bladders on
>the inflorescences, radiating from the peduncle like spokes on a wheel,
>in order to insure the flower stays above water. This is going to be
>neat!

:-( I've always liked U. inflata - but never got a genuine plant (or at
least, they didn't survive if I did...) Hope yours grows well.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| John Taylor [The Banshee] | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology |
| rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au | Department of Applied Physics |
| MOKING IS A HEALTH HAZARD. | Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+