Date: Sat, 06 Jun 1998 22:11:59 +0900 From: ss66428 <ss66428@hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1934$foo@default> Subject: D.villosa "orgelgeburge" mystery solved
To all,
Just a curiosity resulting from the interchange of experiences
at the
Bonn ICPS Conference. While talking to my friend Gert Hoogenstrijd from
Holland about Brazilian Drosera, he asked me about D.villosa
"orgelgeburge" (sp.?), a plant supposedly distributed by a German CPer
by the name of Harold Weiner. I said that I had no idea what this plant
was, much less where this completely un-Brazilian-sounding name had
originated. Suddenly someone (I believe Peter from Austria) mentioned
that "orgel" meant "organ" in German. I suddenly got one of those
little light bulbs in my head and remembered how in S.Africa all the
mountain range names ended in "berge" and how that meant "mountain" in
Africaans. So I asked Gert if it had the same meaning in German and the
answer was yes!
What does all this mean? It means that D.villosa "orgelgeburge"
was
collected in the well known Organ Mts in the state of Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil! This form is supposedly smaller than the common D.villosa in
cultivation, which surprisingly enough also orginates from the Organ
Mts, collected by the Brazilian CPer Reginaldo Britto in the 70's, very
likely along the road between the cities of Petropolis and Teresopolis,
at about 1000m of altitude. I've seen this plant at this location and
in cultivation and it is a beautiful reddish-pink color, has petioles
slightly longer and narrower than D.villosa from other locations, and
has hairy flower scapes.
Although I've never seen this form called "orgelgeburge" in
cultivation, I imagine its smaller size in comparison to plants
collected on the same mts means that it was collected at higher
altitude. A few years ago I climbed the Organ Mts. and near the top,
at around 2000m, I found small-rosetted D.villosa which looked like
D.montana. I imagined that in cultivation they would reach the normal
size for D.villosa, but maybe they don't, remaining always small.
So for those of you who like location names, you can now label
your
normal D.villosa (as long as it's the reddish-pink hairy form) and the
"orgelgeburge" form simply as "Serra dos Orgaos", with an additional
mention to altitudes such as "highland" and "lowland" forms, or
"approx.1000m" and "approx.2000m". One more mystery Brazilian drosera
solved. I'm running out of mysteries with these plants!! Have to go
back to find a few more (and solve some remaining ones).
Best Wishes,
Fernando Rivadavia
Tokyo, Japan
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