Pinguicula pitchers

Rick Walker (walker@hpl-cutt.hpl.hp.com)
Tue, 17 Aug 93 12:10:23 PDT

Today I made my morning rounds of the greenhouse and was startled
to see a pitcher growing on my _P. agnata_ "blue flower"!

The "pitcher" is about 1.5 inches tall and appears to be derived from
a confused flower scape. The plant is currently flowering.
The stalk of the pitcher is circular in cross-section and is
distinctly different than the elliptical cross-section of normal leaves.

The mouth of the pitcher is circular and about .5" in diameter. There
is no obivious line revealing where the leaf has fused into a conical
shape. The inside of the cone is glandular while the outside is not.

Here is an attempt at an ascii rendering of the pitcher, which on
my display is approximately actual size:

______
<______> <---- conical opening, glandular inside
\ /
\ / <-- pitcher held erect, like flower scape
\ /
||
|| <-- circular cross section
|| <-- base attached to rosette as a normal scape

I'm planning to take pictures of this anomoly and attempt to propagate
this leaf as a cutting.

My min/max thermometer and hygro shows nothing unusual for the last
10 days.

--
Rick