Re: Genlisea

From: ss66428 (ss66428@hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
Date: Thu Apr 23 1998 - 00:56:51 PDT


Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 16:56:51 +0900
From: ss66428 <ss66428@hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg1356$foo@default>
Subject: Re: Genlisea

To all,

>Science News weekly magazine has a paragraph with accompanying
>photograph about Genlisea. Wilhelm Barthlott of the University
>of Bonn in Germany is the quoted scientist. He reports that
>Genlisea secretes chemicals that attract protozoa, and this is
>the first example of a carnivorous plant secreting a chemical
>lure.

        Now in Science as well? This is the sama guy who had a short
note in Nature about 2 weeks ago stating that Genlisea had been proved to
be "the first protozoa-catching plant". HUH? Excuse me? And what about
Utricularia and Aldrovanda??? And now he has a paper in Science claiming that
Genlisea is the first CP that secretes a chemical lure? And what is nectar?
It sure ain't visual!!! How do these things get through editorial boards of
such important publications? You'd think they'd bother to take the time to
ask anyone who knew even a little tiny bit about CPs! At least this Barthlott
guy proved that he sure knows how to sell his lemonade!
        Anyways, one thing that did make me very happy about his work with
Genlisea was that he is apparently using two Brazilian species: G.violacea
and G.aurea. It first of all gives me joy to see someone publishing stuff
with plants which were very likely grown from seeds collected by myself over
the past few years, making me feel like a proud father. :):) But most of
all, this is the first time I hear that anyone is successfully cultivating
G.aurea!!!! Until now all I'd heard were complaints from people not being
able to germinate the seeds and only a few reports of seedlings, which either
proved to be something else or died in most cases.
        For me, G.aurea plants collected in the wild would very often rot
almost immediately after being brought into cultivation, if not on my way
from their isolated mountain habitats back to Sao Paulo. Only a few specimens
lasted for over a few months, but never much more than a year, and only one or
two plants bothered to flower in cultivation.
        So now's the time to ask again. Has ANYONE out there had any success
cultivating G.aurea???? And what about other Brazilian species: G.filiformis,
G.repenes, and G.pygmaea? G.violacea and G.lobata are apparently easier than
the above yellow-flowered species, and fortunately, the fantastic amazing
huge beautiful awesome magnificent incredible and so on G.uncinata is
apparently doing VERY well in cultivation, from the few stories I've heard.
Seeds germinated slightly over 2 years ago are already producing the typical
thick scapes and flowering even. I didn't think this species grew so fast!
        Ah, this reminds me of that most memorable July day back in '95 when,
after travelling for almost 2 days on buses and hiking all around the small
isolated village of Mucuge, I finally found this amazing species growing at
the very top of some high mountains, and how the enormous size of the flower
scapes and traps nearly gave me a heart attack! I believe that day rates
number one among my many CP memories. Wow, I sure miss hiking in Brazil!!!!!

Best Wishes,

Fernando Rivadavia
Tokyo, Japan



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:31:31 PST