Flame Letter

Barry Meyers-Rice (barry@mips3.as.arizona.edu)
Thu, 13 Oct 1994 08:39:45 -0700

Regarding Byblis germination, I've tried patience, GA, boiling water,
scratching seeds, the lot.

Fire's the only thing that ever worked for me. I've gotten B.gigantea to
germinate this way, and also a large-seeded variant of B.liniflora from
the Darwin area. I suspect all the large-seeded Byblis might be looking for
fires.

I suggest sowing seed on the soil surface about a week before doing a burn.
Let the seeds moisten this way before the fire treatment.

There's a very well written, and scholarly account of fire-treating Byblis
seeds by some extraordinarily reliable source in CPN 22:1&2.

:)