Re: ?D.peltata?

From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
Date: Mon Jan 06 1997 - 08:48:46 PST


Date:          Mon, 6 Jan 1997 08:48:46 
From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg74$foo@default>
Subject:       Re: ?D.peltata?

Dear Dave & Peter,

> > I was able to count six green yet hairy
> > sepals and six petals but

If your plant has a corm, this number is clearly an aberration. But
this kind of thing is not at all unusual in _Drosera_. The plant
"meant" 5 but by "mistake" produced 6. Did you count the styles
(should be 3 at the base)?

> > Anyway, there are only two flowers and Jan's key calls for
> > around ten.

The key wants 5-20 but poor (cultivated) specimens could have less.
Anyway, the differences between many of the recently described forms
and _D. peltata_ proper are in some cases so weak that their
distinctness is in some cases rather doubtful. All of the new forms
were described from W AU, and the respective author is not
necessarily familiar with the species and its variability on a global
scale.

> > What I did come up with is D.salina...

Did it have:
"Lamina of basal leaves flabellate, folded, (...) erect stem
flexuous" as noted in the key?

> The sepals sound more like peltata too - D.salina has glabrous sepals
> according to Lowrie, while peltata's are dotted with terete-stalked
> glands.

The extent of indumentum and ciliature of the sepals in _D.
peltata_ is very variable, as has been demonstrated by the only
thorough investigation on this topic by Barry J. Conn, so I have
used this character for determinative purposes only very reluctantly.
_D. peltata subsp. pletata_ has "hairy or glabrous" sepals,
already subsp. _auriculata_ has "glabrous" ones (cf. the mentioned
key).

Kind regards
Jan



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