Re: D.uniflora cultivation

From: Fernando Rivadavia (ss69615@ecc-xs09.hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
Date: Thu Jan 23 1997 - 00:28:54 PST


Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 17:28:54 +0900 (JST)
From: Fernando Rivadavia <ss69615@ecc-xs09.hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg331$foo@default>
Subject: Re: D.uniflora cultivation

Jan and all,

>First, I do not have any experience with the cultivation of _D.
>uniflora_ (does anyone on this list?).

        I know 3 people who do and all three got their plants from the
same source in early 1991. Randy Lamb (HI Randy! - and to the aussies,
brits, and kiwis it's no joke, that's his name, but I don't think he
minds if you make the usual jokes!) from Canada did quite a tour through
South America in 1990/91, passing through most countries if I remember
well, including Brazil, where we met and I had a chance to show him some
CPs near Sao Paulo city. In fact, he even wrote 2 articles about this
trip for CPN, although a whole page was omitted and was never published
afterwards.
        Anyways, Randy went all the way down to Tierra del Fuego and
collected D.uniflora, as well as the P.antarctica which a few people now
have in-vitro (including you Jan). Randy sent me some plants while heading
north through Chile and I hate to say there were many of them and even
seeds, but I eventually lost them all, as expected. Before I did though,
I did send some plants back to Randy in Canada and even some seeds to
Bruce Salmon in New Zealand, but I don't believe either of them had
success.
        So there you have 3 people who've at least tried cultivating
D.uniflora. If Randy sent seeds/plants to others (I don't know) then maybe
there are more of us. Who knows, maybe someone even still has a few live
plants in their collections!

>
>> Hopefully I'll get seeds to spread to in-vitro workers. The plants
>> I intend to pass on to responsible cultivators here in Japan. Yet the
>> plants should be at the height of their growing season at the moment,
>> it being summer in the S Hemisphere.
>
>Summer yes, hot no.

        Who said anything about hot? I agree with you though that the best
way to cultivate them would be to maintain them under lights with long
photoperiods at the moment and later on put them in the freezer until
next winter. And the winter here is truly similar to this plant's summer,
with temperatures usually between 0-10C. But to put them in vitro is
probably our best bet at the moment. Hopefully I'll get mature seeds with
these plants (which BTW will only arrive on Saturday now). So get your
tubes ready Isao-san!! There's gonna be another meeting of the Japanese
CPS this Sunday and I'll take the seeds and plants there so we can
discuss what to do with them.

Best Wishes,

Fernando Rivadavia
Tokyo, Japan



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