I have 'Plants of Prey' by Erickson and I've been meaning to buy Lowrie's book
for some time. I can't get a good look at the plant's stipules to use
Erickson's key. I don't see how it can be done without disecting the plant to
expose the stipules in the center. It seems like there's twice the number of
pygmy Drosera species now than was described in Erickson's book.
>Don, With up to 10 flowers per scape, your pygmy cannot be _D.pygmaea_. It
>could be still a form of _D.occidentalis_ (but I suppose you have checked
>that it isn't). Maybe you have _D.rechingeri_ (but this has yellow rather
>than orange stigmas). If all of the above is not the case, the remaining two
>possibilities are a hybrid, and a new species. As the plant grows amongst
>_D.pygmaea_ and still has some _D.pygmaea_-features, the hybrid possibility
>seems far more probable. How long do you have your _D.pygmaea_, and when did
>the "outlaws" appear first? Is it possible the hybrid (if it is one)
>originated during your culture of _D. pygmaea_, or do you think you got the
>plant together with your _D.pygmaea_?
> Kind regards Jan
I have two forms of _D. occidentalis_. These have pink flowers rather than
white and they both produce one or two-flowers per scape. The D. pygmaea were
from Michael Chamberland and I've been growing them for two years now. They
were a batch of over a hundred various pygmies all crowded and growing
together. I divided them and put those that looked the same into the same
pot. The next summe they flowered and I noticed there were mostly two
species: D. pygmaea and D. nitidula nitidula with the majority of the plants
being D. pygmaea. D. nitidula nitidula was easy to ID with its three red
stigmas close to the center of the flower and the habit of the plant is a
little bigger in diameter than D. pygmaea. Both these pygmies are weedy and
I've found both, especially D. pygmaea growing with other plants. I didn't
notice the unidentified pygmy until this year.
Here's the phone number of a business near Chicago that sells greenhouse
equipment. Call and get a free catalog:
1-800-828-2242
This place was recommended on the orchids list.