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The polymorphic D.cistiflora


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Hello to all,

D.cistiflora is truly a very polymorphic species -- which is part of its beauty! Here are some pics taken in September of different D.cistiflora forms.

First, here are some pics of the large white-flowered form common around Cape Town and in areas just N of it. These were taken in the same area where the purple-flowered form was found, as you can see in the last of 4 pics (notice the green beetle in the second pic -- possibly a pollinator?):

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A bit further N around Darling, the flowers vary from white to a light pink-lilac:

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Around Hermanus there are also white flowered D.cistiflora, but the plants are more robust. Look at the width of the leaves:

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Around Caledon, we saw plants with long stems, well-formed rosettes, and lilac flowers. Most surprisingly, it had side shoots coming off from the main stem at the base of the flower scape:

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One of the most "boring" (if this can be said for such a beautiful species) forms of D.cistiflora grows near the base of Baine's Kloof pass. The flowers are pinkish-lilac to nearly white. The "boringness" of this form is compensated by the fact that several flowers may be open at the same time (I saw up to 6) and that it grows in massive populations, carpeting the mountainside. There were many moneky beetles flying around pollinating the flowers too.

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High up on the mountains of Baine's Kloof, past D.regia, D.capensis, D.admirabilis & others, there's a small form of D.cistiflora with lilac flowers. The stems are only a few cm high and grow very densely together with D.trinervia.

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Further N in the Giftberg mountains we saw a deep red form of D.cistiflora. They were past flowering unfortunately, but supposedly they're pinkish-lilac if I remember well. Curiously, all Drosera on these moutains were deep-red in color: D.cistiflora, D.alba (present in the 1st pic below), D.trinervia & D.capensis.

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Best wishes to all,

Fernando Rivadavia

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Using my special CPN reading powers, 3 days.

Those are really awesome plants!!! My favorite is the red-colored flower. When did you take this trip? Did you take this trip and the other ones a while ago and only now are uploading all these pics? And what's the giant cabbage thingy in the 3rd-to-last pic?

-Ben

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Hi,

wow!! Not hard to see, why the south-african wintergrowers are my favorite plants! Many thanks for showing the pictures!

In cultivation (at least for me) the flowers of D. cistiflora open at up to three successive days. They close each evening and open again at the next morning.

Christian

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Hey Ben,

The trip to South Africa was in September of this year with several CPers, including Robert Gibson. Both Rob & I had visited S.Africa 9 years ago independently. After this last trip, Andreas Fleischmann & I went to Zambia. While Robert explored S.Africa a little more.

Best Wishes,

Fernando Rivadavia

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Hello :shock: .

Thank you Fernando. Those picture are some of the nicest Drosera-in the-wild-shots i have ever seen.

This is clearly a gorgeous species.

It's interesting to witness the interactions between the insects pollinators (seems to be scarabaeidae beetles in each case) and the carnivorous plants.

Friendly,

François.

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Hi Fernando/Andreas,

did you also find some of the plants, that Paul Debbert described in his 2002 Paper (Einige neue Drosera-Arten aus Südafrika, Linzer biol. Beitr. 34/1:793-800) as D. variegata, liniflora and coccipetala? Do you think, these are good species?

Christian

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Hello Christian,

Debbert's plants were always a big part of our discussions while driving around from place to place in S.Africa. Andreas has just written to me saying he met Debbert and confirmed that we saw D.coccipetala (pics soon) & D.variegata at Caledon (this was the D.cistiflora with shoots at the base of the scape); the red D. cistiflora is what Debbert named D. rubripetala; the massive lowland populations of D.cistiflora at Baineskloof is what he described as D.liniflora; the "yellow" D.pauciflora (pics soon) D.atrostyla, and a large pink-flowered D.trinervia from the Cedeberg mountains (also not pictured yet) is what he called D.afra. The only one we didn't see was D.rubripetala, which is a rosetted species closer to D.aliciae/ slackii.

Some appear to be good species or subspecies, but others may just represent some of the magnificent natural variability of Cape Town CPs.

Best Wishes,

Fernando Rivadavia

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Hi Fernando

Son una fotos fantasticas y muy ilustrativas de como son las plantas en su medio ambiente, aunque me he retirado nuevamente por trabajo del mundo de las carnivoras, te mando un saludo y te felicito por tan formidables fotos

Saludos

PD me imagino que el viaje fue maravilloso verdad ;-)

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  • 11 months later...

Hello to all,

Looking back at some of my old posts, I see that this new forum fornat is now limiting the number of pictures per post! Since many of py pics don't appear anymore on the original post, only the links, I will include them here at the end for you, continuing from where the pics left off...

Best Wishes, Fernando Rivadavia

-------------------------------------------------

Around Paarl, NW of Cape Town, we found D.cistiflora with light-purple flowers growing together with numerous D.pauciflora. And did I say D.trinervia was there too? Well, it was all over every site we went...

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And finally, what is probably the most spectacular form of D.cistiflora (a title in dispute with the purple form), the red-flowered form native to areas W & N of Darling. I had seen this form in flower 9 years ago, so I wasn't as excited this time around. Still, it's a wonderful flower color for a Drosera! The leaves of this form are narrow and the plants very delicate.

At the northern site, we found small groups of red-flowered plants growing interspaced with groups of white-flowered D.cistiflora (as well as numerous D.pauciflora with light-purple flowers). This suggests that there is some sort of genetic/ pollinization barrier between these 2 forms and that they may be different supsecies/ species.

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Best wishes to all,

Fernando Rivadavia

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Hi Fernando,

Earlier you mentioned the following species:

Debbert's plants were always a big part of our discussions while driving around from place to place in S.Africa. Andreas has just written to me saying he met Debbert and confirmed that we saw D.coccipetala (pics soon) & D.variegata at Caledon (this was the D.cistiflora with shoots at the base of the scape); the red D. cistiflora is what Debbert named D. rubripetala; the massive lowland populations of D.cistiflora at Baineskloof is what he described as D.liniflora; the "yellow" D.pauciflora (pics soon) D.atrostyla, and a large pink-flowered D.trinervia from the Cedeberg mountains (also not pictured yet) is what he called D.afra. The only one we didn't see was D.rubripetala, which is a rosetted species closer to D.aliciae/ slackii.

Can you post the images of some of these species please?

I think of the genus as a whole, these South African plants are the most beautiful.

Nigel H-C

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Hi Fernando,

somehow i have not seen these great pictures yet.

Thanks for putting it on the top of new posts :happy:, otherwise i would never seen them perhaps.

These plants and flowers are really incredible.

My plants have not flowered yet, so i´m exciting what flower colour they will have.

Thanks a lot,

Dani

P.S: i also would like to see some pictures of the species Nigel mentioned. :smile:

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