Date: Mon, 24 Mar 1997 15:56:17 From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1072$foo@default> Subject: Re: D. and U. identification.
Dear Christopher,
> I have a couple of plants that I don't know the names of. Can anyone help?
>
> The first is a non tuberous rosette Drosera, about 2cm in diameter. It has
> plenty of leaves, green with red tentacles, these are teardrop shaped (rather
> than a thin stem then a round leaf). Flowers are pink, and I have seen up to
> eight on a scape. I have only ever seen one scape to a plant, they are
> flowering now - early autumn. This plant could be a D.cistiflora (according
> to the description in a book I have), but I'm not sure.
Does it have thickened roots? Does it have large (several cm across)
flowers? Does it have basally bipartite and only apically penicillate
styles? Do the petals have a dark base? Does it lack stipules
completely?
If you can answer all the questions above with a clear "yes", then
you might indeed have a member of Ptycnostigma, and possibly _D.
cistiflora_. This species does usually have conspicuous cauline leaves
(besides those in the rosette).
> The other plant is a terrestrial Utricularia. It has thin green leaves about
> 2-3mm long, and one or two flowers on a 2-3cm high scape. The flowers are
> green balls about 1mm wide, from which white petals emerge for a while. The
> balls go purple, and then dry out to a papery brown colour. When the balls
> are brown, a piece detaches from the ball to become a sort of cup thing
> underneath it. This description isn't going well...how about some
> ascii art!
>
> O)___________
> This is a scape on its side, with the seed pod on top. The seed pod and the
> cup thing are both attached! When ripe, the seeds come out as if from a salt
> shaker.
I do not know if you have ever tried to identify a _Utricularia_ but
you should definitely describe more details of the flowers (pedicel
flattened? bracteoles present? bracts basifixed? shape and texture of
calyx lobes? shape of corolla lower and upper lip - longer or shorter
than calyx or spur? shape of palate? capsule dehiscence? capsule
wall thickened along line of dehiscence? seed shape?) and traps. From
your description it can only be deduced that you have a white (-pink)-
flowered terrestrial species of _Utricularia_. There are several such
species in the genus.
Kind regards
Jan
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