Re: Mixed up Drosera

From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
Date: Thu Mar 06 1997 - 12:46:50 PST


Date:          Thu, 6 Mar 1997 12:46:50 
From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg823$foo@default>
Subject:       Re: Mixed up Drosera

Dear Ken,

> Through a mixup in labeling of seeds I am currently growing D.
> spathulata and D. capillaris, but I can't distinguish which is which.
> Can anyone offer any suggestions? Various books offer advice on how
> to differentiate D. capillaris and D. rotundifolia, but I haven't
> found anything that differentiates D. spatulata. Pictures in the
> books that I have and on the web are not much help. The plants are
> growing under lights and look very similar except for color. One
> group of plants have a decided red coloration. One of the non-red
> plants is just starting to flower, but I am not convinced that flower
> coloration will differentiate species. Also, since only one plant is
> flowering I cannot make comparisons. Any help would be appreciated.

You can at least find out what is your flowering specimen. Wait until
you can obtain completely developped floral parts. You will probably
not witness the open flower because _Drosera_ flowers tend to wait
until you have left home and they will have perished as soon as you
come back. But in this case you should take one of these old flower
remnants and careflly remove the sepals and petals so you can see the
stamens and the ovary with the styles. The styles in both species are
basally bifurcate but not repeatedly divided (usually). _D.
spatulata_ has basally thickened styles with narrowing pointed
stigmas. In _D. capillaris_ the opposite is the case, the base is
thin and stigmas are wide and obtuse. _D. capillaris_ has very
distinctly papillate seeds while they are only reticulate in _D.
spatulata_. Forget about colours. They will not help you to find out
a specific difference.

Kind regards
Jan



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