Drosera Capillaris Flowers!

From: Paul V. McCullough (pvmcull@voicenet.com)
Date: Mon Jun 16 1997 - 21:53:58 PDT


Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 00:53:58 -0400
From: "Paul V. McCullough" <pvmcull@voicenet.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2359$foo@default>
Subject: Drosera Capillaris Flowers!


  Okay, I finally did get to see one of these bloom! The internal
structure is kinda dull. (boo) But the flower color (as I said before)
is striking (Yay). I've decided not to attempt a cross with the ever
eager d. adelae as the d. capillaris flowers are too tiny for me to
manipulate... although, I suppose using the cap's pollen would mean that
it doesn't really matter how much damage I do to the cap's flower.
  One thing that struck me as odd- the scapes on the caps are very long
and spindly... as soon as the flowers start to bloom, the scape
collapses under the weight and lay at a low angle over the soil (within
a quarter inch). The remaining flowers continue to bloom, though. Is
this normal behaviour?
  Actually, I can think of two reasons why this would be to the plant's
advantage... 1) the seeds are more readily delivered to the soil and 2)
the seedlings will be at least 6" to 7" away from the progenitor plant.
If this is a common trait of drosera (and the other high scape CP)
already known, then forgive my ignorance. I always thought the tall
scape was a mere truce with the insect kingdom! (Insects aren't just for
eatin' anymore!)
  My formerly dying, now recovered VFT has eaten it's first bug (a
flying ant).

Cheers,
Paul

--
Paul V. McCullough
"3D Animation World" http://www.voicenet.com/~pvmcull
"CP Page" http://www.voicenet.com/~pvmcull/pics/cp/carniv.htm



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