Date: Mon, 11 Aug 97 20:10 EDT From: dave evans <T442119@RUTADMIN.RUTGERS.EDU> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3055$foo@default> Subject: Re: Multiple responses...
> On the other hand, there's no telling how many times this plant's
> clock got reset- factors too numerous to mention can cause a plant to
> flower in the wrong season. Also, this particular ssp of longifolia
> looks identical to those pictures I referred to...
> Also, I only bought this butterwort about a month ago (at a Home
> Depot) so I don't know it's growth history.
Hi Paul (again :)
I can just about guarantee you have Mexican Butterworts and they
are probably hybrids. First, the species to which the flowers appear
to belong would be dead if Home Depot had them. :-Q Second, only
the weediest of plants are sold at such outlets. This includes almost
all of their other, non-CP stock. Mexican Butterworts are very easy
to grow and the hybrids are even easier. Not trying to knock you down,
just pointing out that stores and commerical producers tend to sell
easily grown plants. (not to mention I've never even seen P.vulgaris
or P.grandiflora sold at a store and these are the easy to grown winter-
bud forming species.) Also, if you confused these two species as to
what time of year it is, they would probably just go dormant and they
will not flower unless they have just come through winter. If they
had, you could probably see that the rosettes were still openning up.
Mexicans, on the other hand, can flower much more often in cultivation
- at least the common ones I'm used to seeing.
> The supplier to Home Depot seems to have CP varieties from all over
> the world- who knows what they have access to... just because it seems
> unlikely, doesn't mean its impossible. As for ease of keeping alive,
> the P. longifolia seems to be thriving while the p. crystallina (my
> original Mutt Ping) seems to always be struggling.
Try this mix on your struggling plant: 1 part verculite, 1 sand, 2
peatmoss. I wish I could see your plants!
> Perhaps this is of the Agnata family- I can't find any pictures of
> the leaves to determine this; I can say that the agnata flower depicted
> on Rick Walker's page is not at all like the flower I see in shape, or
> color. As for the crystallina ID, it's the only butterwort I've ever
> seen that looks like my Mutt- the traps are pear shaped, with the small
> end at the center and the large round on the outside. None of the other
> butterworts even comes close.
How about P.moranensis?
Last year I recieved a whole bunch of Mexican Butterworts and
most of them have pear shaped leaves. I think a decent number of
them are either hybrids or quirky variants of species that show lots
of diversity. Hopefully they will flower soon - they don't seem to
care about the hours of light/day as much as the humidity and went
dormant in the middle a dry heatwave a couple weeks ago, inspite of
just coming out dormancy not quite three monthes ago.
They do go dormant in dry Mexican winter, right?
> > As with most CP I've seen in the wild, D. filiformis seems to thrive
> > in a wide variety of environmental conditions, from the high dry
> > ground you noted to the black, waterlogged muck in which I've always
> > seen them growing in New Jersey.
> >
> Interesting. I wonder why then that this particular d. filiformis
> (NJ) had an obvious dislike of growing in the water? Even the Park
> Staffer said that this was true. Could the water have some chemical
> present that filiformis finds abhorrent?
No, they just don't like it as wet as D.intermedia. D.rotundifolia
likes it even drier. Yep, you can find them on Sphagnum right at the
waters edge, but these plants tend to be very small. The best ones
are consistently found higher ground with some shading from grasses
or shrubs. Even the largest Sphagnum growing D.rotundifolia will be
found to have some shading. I have neven seen a D.filiformis rooted
into Sphagnum, while D.intermedia seems to love the stuff and D.rotund.
can "get by" growing on it. Sometimes I see Sphagnum moss growing up
around where D.fili. is growing, but the moss is very thin and the
plants are still well rooted into the sand beneath. No, you don't have
to dig them up to see it, just push the Sphagnum away. If it doesn't
get pushed away, the D.fili. will die from being smothered in time.
> D. rotundifolia were all in the water or at the water edge, while
> not a single filiformis was- we walked around an entire pond, too!
> The filiformis was right in the dirt path far (by planty standards)
> from the water.
Yeah, that's just how they grow, but if you looked through the grasses
some (sometimes, you have to almost dig through the grass litter) to
find the greater populations of D.rotundifolia.
> Jay, could you send me a private email where you saw d. filiformis
> growing in the water? I'd be interested in comparing and contrasting
> the two different growing situations.
In very bright conditions, D.fili will grow right to the water's edge.
> Also, were the filiformis traps longer then 6"? These were very
> short (as I stated in the prev post) - 4 to 6"... also the plants had
> a saguaro cactus like look- straight threadlike leaves but jutting up
> pretty strongly to the sky. Not at all like the long wispy and weak
> leaves I've seen in photos. Thanks for the comments, Jay!
More sun and wind makes for a more compact plant. I've seen D.filiformis
growing in very dry soil, but they didn't have anything on the plants
growing in wetter conditions - less than half the size of the wetter
plants, though they had flowered and set seed so they can get by on
drier ground.
> On a different note, I forgot to mention in my last posting that all
> of the sundew varieties had flower scapes at the same stage of
> development, just past blooming. This makes me wonder how often natural
> hybrids are formed. For instance, I saw some tiny bright red sundews
> with intermedia shaped traps, that were growing flat to the ground in
> rosettes- more like rotundifolia. Since these were immature plants (I
> think...) they may not represent what the final plant will look like-
> but my baby intermedia sprouted out of the ground looking just like a
> miniature version of the adult intermedias.
Perhaps because the humidity in your set-up is much more consistent.
Most plants that can, tend to hung the ground in brighter (less humid),
more exposed (wind, another humidity reducer) areas than those with
even stightly more protection. Could be hybrids though, I wish I'd
see them when bog tromping!!!
Dave Evans
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