Dieter

Dear all, here are two more forms I would name D. serpens. The first one is a white-flowered form from Weary Bay. Once more I am starting with two old pictures I may not have shared yet. This form is quite densely covered with the red trichomes and the Y-shaped ones can also be found in abundance. However, I did not find the yellow "mushroom-heads" which should also be there according to the description. Nevertheless, as the other characteristics fit to the D. serpens description, I consider this one a D. serpens form. The next one is a similar situation. This form comes from the Annan River. It has few pale red trichomes, so the overall appearance is much paler than for the two other forms shown above. The Y-shaped trichomes are easily visible, the "yellow mushroom-heads" once more, however, not. What do you think of these? Best regards Dieter

Hi Siggi, I do not know the D. indica "red emergences" and therefore I can not answer your question. However, I would not call all plants with these red emergences D. serpens. Once I get to one of my D. indica variants which bears lots of these emergences, I will show that the flower does not fit to the description of D. serpens. But that will be covered later. Allen writes in his D. serpens description: "D. serpens is distinguished from its closest relatives by its major axis indumentum of many larger red trichomes bearing yellow, eglandular, mushroom-like heads (...), but with a +- double rim around its basal circumference; petiole indumentum free of all long retentive glands, and bearing distinctive, Y-shaped eglandular appendages with translucent white stems and translucent, pale yellow, upper V-shaped segments." According to this the red emergences are not a feature only found in D. serpens, whereas the yellow "mushroom heads" and the Y-shaped trichomes are. Best regards Dieter

I agree. Whatever it is, it is not P. ehlersiae. Best regards Dieter

Dear all, many of you will be well aware that Allen Lowrie split the D. indica complex into a number of separate species which are described in detail in his Magnum Opus. I am growing several such variants/species and currently I am trying to put new names to my plants. On the first glance D. serpens seems to be the species I grow the most forms of, but I am not always sure about my ID. Therefore, any feedback is welcome! As it takes some time to prepare the fotos, I will post them here one after the other. I will start today with a - in my opinion - very typical D. serpens, a white flowered form from Sir John Gorge: Here are two pictures I made in 2012 and which I may not have shared yet. Growth point (you can already see some of the typical features on the backside of the new leaf and the flower stalk): Now a bit more detail on the typical features. Those are - in addition to flower and leaf morphology - the structures forming the indumentum on the stem, leaves and inflorescence. In case of D. serpens there are the translucent small trichomes as well as three types of larger ones: red struktures, some yellow ones which have the shape of a mushroom and translucent Y-shaped ones. Here is the backside of a developing leaf. Both the small translucent as well as the large red trichomes are visible. In some forms the number of the red trichomes can be so high that the the leaf appears red at this stage. Now a flower stalk. Here you can see the red trichomes as well as some of the yellow, mushroom-like structures. Getting a bit closer makes it a bit easier to see them, however: Now a section of the leaf axil. Please note that the tentacles do not start directly at the stem as they do in some species. At the stem you can see the yellow mushroom heads and the red trichomes as before. If you look carefully, you will also find the Y-shaped trichomes on the leaf axil. Another part of the leaf axil reaching to the tentacles: Finally a close-up of a single "Y": The last picture for today is another stem section showing many of the yellow mushroom heads: Cheers Dieter

Hi jp, very interesting! I accidentally had this happen with a D. macrophylla which had the stolon broken off on its journey to me. In that case both the stolon and (later) the tuber developed into a new plant and also a tuber at the end of the season. However, I never followed up on that the way you just did. What happened to the tubers in your case? Best regards Dieter

I do not see a picture when following your links. Probably I may have to register to that forum first? In that case it might be easier if you post the pictures elsewhere. Best regards Dieter

Dear all, here are some pictures of this new species recently described by Allen Lowrie in his Magnum Opus. It is a orange flowered species, the closest relative is D. callistos. In my opinion it really is a beauty. Even better, it seems to be an easy grower, at least in my conditions. The plants are greenish or yellowish green. Here are a couple of shots taken at the end of some gemmae season. The red colour of the outer gemmae is indicating that they are about to die (or already doing so): The plants have a compact appearance the the inflorescence is shorter than for D. callistos. In addition, the sepal are quite hairy as you can see below. The flowers are simply gorgeous: I hope you like this one! Cheers Dieter

Congratulations. This is one of the species described to flower rarely, indeed. Thanks for sharing! Dieter

I use sand which is sold for aquarium use. That is available at garden centers and the like over here. My mix is 3 parts sand, 1 part peat. Cheers Dieter

Great! I still remember you saying that you do not like to draw Drosera with all these dew droplets. It seems that you captured the reflections in the droplets nicely. Thanks for sharing Dieter

If you want your plants to produce gemmae, the best bet will be to expose them to cool temperatures and a shortened light period. If you can only provide one of those, I would go for the cool temperature. At least here you do not need additional light, but it helps to keep them a bit happier. By the way, adult plants can withstand light frosts without much problems. My pots were completely frozen for several days during some of the past winters. Young plants and detached gemmae will not be as hardy, however. Keep those protected from frost. I therefore start new colonies inside with long light periods and temperatures of about 20 °C (give and take a few degrees). In spring have then have nearly adult size when I adjust them to the conditions in my "wintergarden". Some of those youngsters respond to the new conditions with a short gemmae season while others continue to grow as before. Best regards Dieter

Thanks for sharing! Dieter

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing Dieter

Yes, see Magnum Opus Volume 1

Nice photos! Thanks for sharing Dieter

Just to make this clear: it is correct that you need a permit, but this has nothing to do with CITES. You will need a permit to import plants and plant products (no matter whether they come from Europe or Canada) with the clear name PPQ 587: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wps/portal/aphis/ourfocus/planthealth?1dmy&urile=wcm%3apath%3a%2FAPHIS_Content_Library%2FSA_Our_Focus%2FSA_Plant_Health%2FSA_Import Best regards Dieter

Dear all, when I was cleaning up my nepenthes ampullaria tank in which the plants had grown quite dense together, I found that actually two times a pitcher had formed inside the other: Sorry for the poor photo quality. It was relatively dark and I did not have much time, so I just made a few snapshots. In this case it was a pitcher of a speckled form inside of a Harlequin pitcher. Cheers Dieter

Do you have a specific reason to say that the ID is not correct? This picture was (most likely) made by Joseph Clemens judging from the legend. He grows (or grew) his plants under intense light and very wet conditions, quite different from what most other growers use. He described his conditions and posted many pictures a few years back. The posts may be deleted by now, but maybe they are still there and you can still find some information in this forum. My own plants are not looking identical to the ones shown on the picture, but I have no doubt that the ID is correct. Best regards Dieter

Hi Dave, I just checked briefly last weekend and this indeed seems to be a D. serpens now. But I will check it again once I have a little time. There will be many name tags to be updated... However, I am not sure why you say that the location is different. Do you have a specific reason for this? Cheers Dieter

D. indica usually starts with a tiny root/root system. You can easily repot seedlings. I do so up to sizes of about 1 cm in leaf length. Later in the growing season this species will develop a strong root system which I never disturbed so far. Best regards Dieter

Dear all, here is the next one of my recent hybrids. Its flowering season starts somewhat later compared to many other species and hybrids. But then, this is no surprise as its seed parent also flowers relatively late. Interestingly, the plant I grew from seeds last year does not flower (yet), it is the next generation, now just a little more than half a year old. Here is a shot of the plants: Enjoy Dieter

Rodrigo, thank you for the nice feedback! Chris, it does not seem to be more difficult than any of the other hybrids. Cheers Dieter

Dear all, this hybrid was testing my patience for quite some time, but finally I was able to get a glimpse on the flowers. I somehow have the impression, that the flowers will only open completely and intact in at least warm conditions. Furthermore, for whatever reason they do not (or only rarely) open on weekends! Fortunately, this long weekend the plants decided to make an exception of this rule. So far, it was quite frustrating only to see the not yet opened and then the closed flower again. Only once I was able to work from home just to get a crippled flower: But at least the colour is unexpected and certainly promising. Finally, here is an intact flower: Two plants in flower (actually, two generations: the plant grown from seeds and one grown from gemmae this winter). The colour is very similar to D. 'Dorks Pink' even though in the picture below the Dorks Pink seems to be orange. I did not see that on my camera screen. Sorry for this. Otherwise I would have tried a little more until it would have been better. The inflorescence: quite similar to D. pedicellaris. Finally, two pictures of the plant (taken in may): Enjoy! Dieter

Hi Albert, I doubt these plants will survive. At least my plants looking like this never did recover. A cooler growing space may help, but I am sure these plants are exposed to much higher temperatures in summer. One observation I made is that D. dichrosepala is very sensitive with respect to pot size. If I use my 7 cm standard pots (being also 7 cm high), the plants will do well for one season and then die in the second summer with a >90% success rate. However, if I use 10 or 11 cm deep pots, the plants can become quite old under otherwise the same conditions. Other species also show a preference for deeper pots, but none I tried showed these impressive differences. It may be different with your conditions, but I mention this anyway as example that very simple changes can make a huge difference. Best regards Dieter

Hi Lutz, you may be doing this already, but let me suggest it anyway: as you grow your tuberous drosera indoors with no or nearly no exposure to natural lights, you can adjust the light period in a way that the flowers are just opening when you come home from work. That may make it a little easier to take some pictures. You still will have the temperature difference, but at least the flowers are still fresh. The drawback I observed with my plants is that you will have to adjust all terraria in that room to more or less the same cycle. If some tanks switch on the light early in the morning, some others after noon, the plants may develop some irregular flowering pattern probably caused by stray light and overall relatively long photoperiods. Cheers Dieter