Re: Sarracenia variations

Rick Walker (walker@cutter.hpl.hp.com)
Mon, 16 May 1994 12:37:02 -0700

> The reason that I was wondering about sustaining the albino Sarr, is that
> since Sarrs have this great feeding apparatus, might it be more amenable to
> absorbing sugars through the pitcher as well?

Hmm. I suppose you could. Normally the sugars are produced inside the
cells of the plant. Sugar solutions in the trap would be prone to
rampant yeasts and bacteria growth. You would need a very tiny
pipette to fill up a seedling pitcher.

> I wonder about grafting the rhizome of an albino plant onto another.

This is commonly done with _Gymnocalicium friedreichii_ mutations to
produce the brilliantly colored "moon" cactuses. The difficulty would
be that you need to graft the tiny Sarr. seedling before it loses the
energy reserve in the seed. At this point there isn't any rhizome at
all.

Some of the green leaves from the host plant would need to be left
growing so that they would sustain both plants.

'twould be stunning if someone could do it.

--
Rick