Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 12:18:08 PST From: Glenn Rankin <rankin@saiph.hpl.hp.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg326$foo@default> Subject: germinating tuberous Drosera
Hi Russell,
D. auriculata has germinated for me quite readily. I hadn't expected
this, so I only planted half for this wet season. The others I was
going to put on top of the medium to enjoy our hot dry summer to see
if that made a difference.
I haven't had trouble getting some tuberous drosera to germinate:
peltata, macrantha ssp. macrantha, macrantha ssp. planchonii,
heterophylla, menziesii ssp. penicillaris, ramellosa. With others,
I've only had sparing luck so far: stolonifera ssp. porrecta,
stolonifera ssp. stolonifera, stolonifera ssp. humilis, gigantea,
gigantea ssp. geniculata, platypoda. The most difficult seem to be
rosetted species: lowriei, erythrorhiza ssp. erythrorhiza,
erythrorhiza ssp. squamosa, macrophylla ssp. macrophylla, macrophylla
ssp. monantha, bulbosa ssp. major, bulbosa ssp. bulbosa, erythrorhiza
ssp. magna. On the other hand, D. whittakeri seeds have yielded well.
For some reason I've had somewhat better luck with seeds from sources
other than Lowrie, but I haven't fully sorted that out yet. Each test
or experiment takes more than a year to complete.
With the difficult drosera above I gave a cool smoke treatment to the
seeds (and the medium they were on), but it didn't help any. They were
subject to an hour of very dense smoke from smoldering eucaplyptus
leaves. There were enough nutrients deposited from the treatment that
a layer of algae grew on gravel pieces and wetted parts of the pots.
No such algae appeared in or on the control pots. I did get flowering
from one of the stolonifera ssp. porrecta I treated. (On the other
hand, my experience confirms that it does make a big difference with
B. gigantea.)
Regards,
Glenn Rankin
rankin@hpl.hp.com
>
> Glenn,
>
> How are those D.auriculata going? Anyway, I think I may
> know why you aren't getting very good germination results.
> I think most Australian tuberous Drosera seed require fire to
> to germinate. A freind of mine has used smoke pads available
> from Frank Wolpert in South Africa to stimulate Byblis
> gigantea seed to germinate.
>
> Most of the tuberous Drosera from Allen Lowrie come from
> the heathlands of Western Australia. Here, fire is an important
> factor in shaping the way the plants grow there. When a fire
> burns through, all of the adult plants are burned, and release
> their seed. Also, seed that has been lying previously dormant
> in the soil are stimulated into germinating by the chemicals and
> heat provided by the fire. Those smoke pads I was talking about
> earlier are impregnated with the same chemicals produced by the
> fire. You place one of these in water with the seed you want
> to germinate, and leave them to soak for about 24 hours. The
> person I was telling you about earlier had never managed to
> germinate Byblis gigantea before, but after the smoke pad
> tratement, he got a very high rate of germination. If you
> want to know how to obtain some of these smoke pads, contact
> me on one of the email addresses below.
>
> Hope this Helps,
>
> Russell.
> --
>
> *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
> ! Russell Elliott !
> ! Seed Bank Director, !
> ! Australian Carnivorous Plant Society !
> ! mailto:relliott@geocities.com !
> ! mailto:elliott@nexus.edu.au !
> *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
>
>
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