Waiting for Winter
D.P. McConachie (D.P.McConachie@massey.ac.nz)
Tue, 13 Apr 93 11:11:25 +1200
Greetings From New Zealand,
I've been driven inside by the rain, so decided to put together my
growing list for Rick and write a brief "What I did over Easter".
Unfortunately for me, the weather forecast for yesterday was wrong
but today they got it right. So yesterday, when the weather was
glorious, I spent time with my folks and today I've been freezing
my butt off tiding up my bog area for the winter.
It was very interesting because I am still finding plants that I
didn't know were in there eg. Drosera burmannii. The last plant of
it I gave away 3 years ago, just before I moved in my new flat and
built the bog. Obviously, some seed must have fallen onto one of
my pots of Sarracenias.
Last year, I got a bit lazy and didn't remove the seedheads off
the Sarracenias that had flowered until the spring. Consequently
I have lots of wilding seedlings growing now, probably all hybrids.
At present, there is a swathe of Utric. sp 'Durbin' in flower. It has
a 15cm high scape with up to 7 flowers opening sequentially, 2 open
at time. The lip, about 1cm wide at its widest, is whitish toning
to mauve with a large mauve spot at the bottom of the lip. The upper
petals look like miniature U.sandersonii petals and the leaves are
also like U.sand's.
Does this description ring a bell with anyone as to exact name.
Its obviously hardy having spent all last winter outside, during
which time we had our second coldest winter ever, average winter temp
8.6C last year 7.2C coldest night temp -6.4C.(and they are predicting
more of the same this year). Still, I suppose we're better off than
some places. The past few season have all been cool, we've had autumn,
long winter,long spring, very short summer and a long autumn
temperature-wise thanks to El Nino and Mt. Pinatoubo.
Also I would like to thank Jan, Rob and the others for the info about
the Spatulata complex. The question actually arose out of some work I
had been assisting with on Pterostylis species (Greenhood Orchids)
here in NZ. Some of the early taxonomists here let personal feelings
colour their judgement of another of their rank's work. Admittedly,
Colensoi was a consummate splitter but he was no worse than some today.
Hope you all have had a good Easter and I look forward to hearing how
things doing up North.
David McConachie