I have a couple of questions regarding a couple of Brazilian
Utrics I've got growing from seed from Fernandos friend
Fabio. (Incidentally, if any of you are waiting to hear back
from Fabio, its definitely worth the wait. I've heard
nothing but good reports of the Brazilian seed. He also
writes a nice letter with all sorts of information about the
plants).
U.blanchetii white flower - this is a beautiful plant,
lowerlip white with a yellow spot, upperlip white with dark
purple stripes. Reading through Peter Taylors book this
colouration is similar to that of the related species
U.parthenopipes. Taylor mentions other differences between
U.parthenopipes and U.blanchetii as being the different
shaped upper lip (transversely elliptic or sub reniform in
U.blanchetii, and broadly obovate-cuneate in
U.parthenopipes), differences in the spur and smaller
corolla in U.parthenopipes.
The problem I have is this, the upperlips of my purple
flowered and white flowered U.blanchetii show considerable
variation - some fit into Taylors description of
U.blanchetii others into the description of U.parthenopipes.
The main difference between the white and purple flower
forms (other than the flower colour of coarse!) is the white
flowers are slightly smaller. Fernando are you familiar with
U.parthenopipes and if so how does this differ from the
white flowered U.blanchetii?
Another Brazilian I have grown from seed is U.hispida, and I
have small plants from seed from 2 different locations. What
is interesting about these small plants is that they have
two types of leaves like U.praelonga (in many respects they
are like a miniature version of U.praelonga). Some leaves
are ovoid in shape where as others are grass like on the
same plant. My second question again arises from reading
Taylor. In his discussion on U.hispida he states ' Specimens
bearing the two types of leaf are not common and have been
seen only from Surinam, where they grew on granitic rocks'.
Is this phenomena that unusual or is it just the case that
the seedlings/ small plants display both leaf types whereas
the adult plants generally don't ?
I look forward to any comments on these observations.
Kind regards
Loyd