Re: Flytraps

CMDodd@aol.com
Tue, 15 Oct 1996 12:52:25 -0400

>I have difficulty understanding why anyone having the proper appreciation
for
>insectivorous plants would want a plant in thier collection that is atypical
>of
>the typical North/South Carolina coastal plain specimen. You can have the
>rest as curiosities as far as I am concerned!
>
>I think the basic spirit of the CP collector is to have a deep appreciation
>of the
>species and natural hybrids, not to see how far the envolope can be pushed.
>
>On the extreme, suppose you could hybridize a Cephalotus Follicularis with a
>Sarricenia Purpurea. Probably would be a marvel of science, but for my
part,
>I would have no more appreciation for the plant than I would someone's
>painting
>of what it would conceptually look like.
>
>I hope no one finds this point of view offensive.
>
>-steve-

I do not find this view offensive, but from what I understand the red (or
even the all green) flytraps available today were merely a few red plants
that were found in the wild which were then either selfed or crossed with
other reddish plants and the offspring selected out for color (or lack of it,
or dentation, etc.) The parents represented the extremes of the wild
population, but were still 'natural', if odd, color forms. The offspring are
too dissimilar to the parents, only much more numerous!

And I would find it difficult to find a 'typical' Nepenthes maxima,
sanguinea, albo-marginata, or ampullaria which all come in a variety of color
forms and/or shapes and sizes. I do have an appreciation of species over
man-made hybrids, however it is great fun to hybridize CP since many new F1
crossed can be made (at least in Nepenthes). I don't think they should ever
take the place of the species [species being a man-made biological division
anyway], especially in Botanic Gardens. Species collections can only become
more necessary as wild stocks dwindle. Still, some hybrids can be beautiful
given the wealth of untapped breeding stock available. They are often of
easier growth than the species and can lead one into a lifetime interested in
CP.

Cliff