Byblis Liniflora
Nigel Hurneyman (NHurneyman@softwar1.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 12 Jun 1996 14:26:06 +-100
As Phil says, BL flops over and creeps along the compost after
a while. Most people find this a disappointment, but you can
regard this as a sign of battle-scarred honour, like the skirt of
dead leaves around an elderly Drosophyllum.
I don't generally record the longevity of my BL. I keep the seed
(helped if necessary with a paintbrush), and when I seem to be
running short of plants, I sow a few more. However I am sure
about the age of one plant, which I hastened to an early grave 2
months short of its second birthday, when I moved it to less
favourable conditions in response to a desperate need for space.
Has anyone bettered that?
I have noticed occasionally that the stem of BL gets very woody
and dries up, sometimes rotting from the damp, and yet the top
of the plant continues growing along the compost despite the
stem behind it dying, much like a terrestrial Aldrovanda. Does
anyone know whether this happens in the wild, or is it purely a
result of the conditions I grow it under?
My original BL seed came from the UK CPS seed bank. I have
tried some of Allen Lowrie's newer discoveries and found them
to be more vigorous, with larger, deeper-coloured flowers. They
also seem to be reluctant to self-seed, and I have had to resort to
the BG tuning fork trick to get them to release pollen. Previous
correspondents have more or less ruled out BG-BL hybrids, but
it does seem to me that these plants have some intermediate
characteristics.
Good Growing, Nigel Hurneyman