Re: _U.alpina_

Barry Meyers-Rice (barry@as.arizona.edu)
Thu, 22 Apr 93 08:25:20 MST

>>I've probably already said this, but I've noticed _U.pentadactyla_ in
>>cultivation has always been _U.bisquamata_. Look to the flowers---those

>Uh Oh, mine only had a kind of wriggly edge to the lower lip - definitely not
>long, thin, separate "fingers".... I hate buying mislabelled plants!

Sorry to bear the bad news to you. Grow it for a few seasons before
chucking it---there's always the possibility that with the appropriate
conditions, the plant would produce flowers that are truely penta-dactylous.
Well, maybe that's wishful thinking.

Certainly, rah rah to Jan's amazing lab techniques. I feel so primitive
when someone sends me seed, and I throw them in dirt!

While the plant may be difficult to get going from seed, once _U.alpina_
is established it is vigourous. I have mine growing in a transparent
15cm (6") pot of live _Sphagnum_, and the pot is filled with stolons.
Strangely, only two or three leaves are poking out of the soil at any
time. Much of the photosynthesis occurs in the green stolons pressed
against the inner surface of the transparent pot.

Sir Taylor, a most interesting thing about the seeds of _D.peltata
auriculata_ you sent me, from Mornington Peninsula. Last year they did
wonderfully, producing many plants and subsequently many tubers. This year
only one tuber sprouted. Surprised by this, I poked around in the soil and
found a big fat earthworm. I thought earthworms only ate decaying matter,
not live tubers---maybe all the tubers died for some mysterious reason?
Anyway, I am reduced from 10^6 to 1 plant from you. What is particularly
strange, is that unlike any of my other _D.peltata auriculata_ or
_D.p.peltata_ plants (I have 6 varieties), this plant emerged directly
from the ground as an erect stem, bipassing a rosette stage. Also, it
branches very heavily, much more than my other plants. What a strange
varmint.

B