VFT size and shape

Seos mac Carthaigh (Seosamh.macCarthaigh@UCG.IE)
Wed, 31 May 1995 12:45:02 +0000 (GMT)


Last year I bought a very hunky VFT with traps 2 - 2.5cm long, and the blade
part of the leaves is broad and about 4cm long. The traps have a nice amount
of red on the insides. I over wintered it outside (down to -5c) and it is back
good and strong - it has about 9 leaves at the moment and they lie flat. This
year it is living in my sparkling new greenhouse, last year it sat in a south
facing window in the house.

I also have a few other VFTs that I bought cheaply at various times. These
plants were inside up to the year I got the above plant, but outside all last
year. Their traps are about 1cm long, and the leaves are much more slender,
paler and much more upright, and they are fewer (at the moment). There is
almost no red coloration in the traps.

All these plants are growing in Slack's recommended VFT compost.

My theory is that VFTs vary in morphology quite a bit (remember the traffic
about the RED VFTs in Australia business). I have cuttings (1995) from both
growth forms described above. They are growing in the same compost mix, side
by side (with their parents) in the greenhouse. My theory is that each will
grow on to look like its parent and that the environmental conditions won't
matter so long as they are healthy.

I'll post something when I reach a conclusion (of course this has
probably been proved or disproved a million times before).

regards

Seosamh