D.hamiltonii and incompleteness of science

Barry Meyers-Rice (barry@mips3.as.arizona.edu)
Wed, 1 Feb 1995 10:34:40 -0700

>Is there anybody who has experience in getting D.hamiltonii flowers? I read
>in Slack's book that it needs a cold period to induce flower formation. How
>long has this period to be? A few nights in the fridge will do?

My plant flowers regularly for me each spring. I have about 10 rosettes in
a single pot perhaps 12cm in diameter. They grow along with my _Sarracenia_,
sitting in water year-round. I think it is important not to disturb them
since they did not flower for me the first few years I grew them. I was
constantly dividing the plants for other growers then. Now when I am dividing
this plant, I very carefully excise tiny plantlets instead of full-sized
plants. During the winter they are exposed to a few months of evenings which
drop to only 5--10 C. The flowers are stunningly beautiful, although they have
never produced seed. Root propagation is the best way to multiply this plant.

>Hopefully, even the "hard" sciences continue to evolve in their concepts,
>theories, and so forth. But somehow, I've never heard anyone debate whether
>a given number is a complex number or not, or the definition of Euclidean

Complex systems (complex as in complicated, not as in number systems) require
complex treatments and complex solutions. (I think Godel's incompleteness
theorem may have applications here!) I think I am correctly paraphrasing
TAYLOR in his introduction to his _Utricularia_ monograph when he said that,
commenting on errors and shortcomings of his work, ``nothing is perfect
except for the plants we study.''

Barry