Re: Drosophyllum bud

From: Manfred Buerzele (buerzele@hlhp1.physik.uni-ulm.de)
Date: Fri Feb 21 1997 - 14:15:23 PST


Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 22:15:23 WET
From: Manfred Buerzele <buerzele@hlhp1.physik.uni-ulm.de>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg678$foo@default>
Subject: Re: Drosophyllum bud

Rand wrote:

> Hello CP'ers:
>
> I have a Drosophyllum seedling that is 4 cm in height and has five leaves.
> It germinated in the fall and, because of our short, somewhat gloomy,
> winter days in Maritime Canada, the plant is rather etiolated. The plant
> has a small, but distinct flower bud growing out of the base of the fifth
> leaf, with the start of another leaf at the base of the bud.
>
> Anyone have a similar experience with Drosophyllum?

In 1995 I have had also a very tiny seedling that produced three flowers
and thereafter even some seed (unfortunately not viable). If you search
the CP archives you should find some old messages that I wrote about this.

> Does this mean that I will be unlikely to be able to grow it on as
> a perennial?

Not necessarily. My plant survived this incident without any problems.
Unfortunately last year it didn't flower again, so I couldn't propagate
this very interesting plant. This winter I have put it into an unheated
room where the temperature got down to -5 C for some days. Seemingly the
plant didn't mind because when the temperature raised again it didn't show
any ill effects for several weeks.
But now it started to wilt and just last week it died. :-(
Obviously in low temperatures Drosohyllum needs to be given even less water
than normally...

> Am I giving it too much water?

Probably yes. Someone else (sorry, I can't remember who) mentioned some
time ago on this mailing list the theory that Drosophyllum starts to flower
as soon as it gets more water than normally (provided the plant is in good
condition).

> It is
> watered from the bottom when the soil goes dry down to about 5-6 cm from
> the surface.

Probably it's better to let the plant completely dry out before watering
again.

> dare I attempt to cover the leggy stem part in the hopes of forming
> new roots and getting a more natural, compact plant?

Try it, it can't hurt, can it? But unfortunately Drosophyllum isn't
known as being able to easily forming new roots.

Cheers,
        Manfred.

PS: Anyone having spare Drosophyllum seed?



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