VFT colours

Barry Meyers-Rice (barry@as.arizona.edu)
Wed, 11 May 94 09:33:57 MST

Today I received a bulging packet from Richard Davion, regarding the PVR
business going on in Australia. Many of the enclosures are part of a paper
trail that Richard is developing to try to prove that PVRs are not
appropriate in this case. I haven't sat down and puzzled through this
entire matter in detail yet. It is somewhat complicated!

There are a few other items regarding VFTs in Richard's packet which
I found very interesting. Apparently there is a lot more to VFTs than
I had thought! I am used to growing typical green plants with red traps,
but Richard's letter had photocopies of colour variants which are very
interesting. For example

1)Green petioles, traps red on interior surface---the nominal form we are
all familiar with.

2)Reddish petioles and traps---the highly controversial variety subject to
possible PVR. Both sides of the traps, and both petioles surfaces are
suffused with red, giving the plant a chocolate colour. Apparently there are
only perhaps two distinct clones of this plant around.

3)Petiole base and trap interior red, petiole end and trap exterior yellow
or yellow green (``Blood-red petioled'' clone)

4)Plant overall yellow or yellow-green, but the inner trap surface has a
narrow red band running along the trap margins, sometimes colouring the
marginal spines (``red-jaws'' clone)

5)Green petioles, reddish or even purplish traps, but with a narrow band
of pigment running along the trap margins on the *outer* surface of the
trap lobes. Very interesting (``Banded'').

(I'm not too sure how true the colour-stretch of these photocopies are---it
is quite possible that the ``yellowish'' plants are really rather green)

Richard notes that colour stability is best achieved by growing the plants
in ``High charcoal ratio soil mixes.'' I wonder what these soil mixes are?

Richard, you noted in a letter dated 1 May 1994 to Tom Kapitany (regarding
this PVR matter) that I am president of this e-mail group. Uhh, that's not
right. There is no government to this group, just anarchy. You may have
gotten the impression I'm ``president'' because of the letter Rick Walker and
I distributed to CP societies informing them of this group's existence?
Other than what I have summarized here, Richard, what do you envision my
doing with this additional information you sent to me?

Barry