D.paradoxa

From: Loyd Wix (Loyd.Wix@unilever.com)
Date: Mon Dec 01 1997 - 05:26:23 PST 

Date: 01 Dec 1997 14:26:23 +0100
From: Loyd Wix <Loyd.Wix@unilever.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg4564$foo@default>
Subject: D.paradoxa

          Dear Fernando,
          
          thank you for your comment on D.paradoxa.
          
>The growth cycle of this new species is not so clear to me
>either. By what I understood, it grows in areas which are
>usually under fast-moving water during the wet season, like
>stream beds.
          
          I can visualise them now, rosettes bobbing about on the
          surface of the stream anchored to the stream bed by their
          long fine stems! I would love to see a photo of that.
          
>Thus it flowers later than the other petiolaris-complex
>species, when the waters have gone down already.
          
          So far I havn't seen flowers on my plants.
          
>Exceptional rains can occasionally wash away all the
>D.paradoxa at a given location, and the population has to
>start again from seeds. The seedling swarms found by Allen
>in places where he had seen mature D.paradoxa the previous
>season led him to believe for a while that it was an annual
>species.
          
          It appears to be reasonably easy to grow from seed with
          quite rapid germination occuring under warm and humid
          conditions.
          
>When allowed to grow for several seasons in a row (that is,
>when floods don't wash away the mature plants), D.paradoxa
>forms the long stems which were what led Allen to call it
>D.sp.aff.teiolaris "erect" for many years. Unfortunately I
>don't have the paper here with me, but I think Allen
>mentioned that these stems may reach 80cm in length.
          
          Well I think my longest/tallest plants are about 8cms long.
          In the Uk the stem becomes prostrate after a while and I
          have noticed new roots emerge from the stem to re-anchor
          the plant. The stems are very fine so I would suspect that
          these are prostrate in habitat also. There is no way I could
          imagine such thin stems as supporting a height of 80cms!!!
          
          Regarding the Utrics and Genliseas, I will E-mail you
          privately in the next few days to give you an update.
          
          Kind regards
          
          Loyd

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