Not a Number

It appears that the cotyledons are covered with sessile glands. As a test for carnivory I placed a speck of fish food flake on one leaf. After twenty minutes it appears the leaves were secreting fluid - presumebly digestive.

And now - Dorsera hamiltonii seedlings!

I grow mine outdoors all year round. I happen to live in a climate that allows me to do this. If the temperatures will drop below 4° I'll bring them indoors. The species can survive light frosts. I have recently repotted them to deeper pots (>15 cm) and they seem much happier - more dew production. See Robert Gibson's notes on this species: http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/samples/NatHist294Dslackii.htm D. filiformis I tend to lose just after the begin to come out of dormancy. The crowns tend to start rotting. I blame this on too much water too soon and can usually prevent this by barely watering until full growth has resumed. Other steps to help eliminate this are to uses sandier mixes >60% sand, or a sand or live Sphagnum mulch/topping. Are your D. filiformis forming a winter bud (hibernaculum) at all? Often for me the winter bud is hidden in a cottony ball of fiber.. What kind of temperatures are you getting in your greenhouse in the winter?

I hate dig up an old thread but enough time has passed that some of the plants should have flowered by now. Any follow up?

And now (ta-daaa) - D. hamiltonii seed: Very few seed, and only from the flowers that were pollinated from the other plants. I may have waited too long to collect the seed but I've noticed that many of species that produce many offshoots seem to produce small seed amounts.

I have two unopened flower remaining on clone A and between two flower stalks on two clone B plants maybe a dozen unopened flowers. I'll finish off trying to cross pollinate the D. hamiltonii with the remaining two flowers and then try hybridizing the rest of the flowers on clone B. It doesn't look very promising as the 2n from D. hamiltonii is 28. D indica, D. gigantea, D. pygmaea and D. adelaered have 2n=28. D. petiolaris has a 2n=14. I either don't have any of these species or they are not any where near flowering.

I tried to take dichogomy into account by also using pollen from previous flowers and pollinating throughout the cycle the flowers were open. They remain open 4-6 hours. Another pair of flowers are opening even as we speak. I have some Dionaea pollen I can mix in. That would lessen the chance of hybrids than using say D. capensis or D. aliciae which are in flower at the same time.

That's a new one to me. I'll try it the next time around in a couple days. Plenty of other stuff flowering too.

D. hamiltonii - hopefully different clones Are the stigma receptive? Yes! Done!

I tried every trick in the book hand pollinating these two years running (three if you count this year but too soon for results). I tried pollen of other and previous flowers and pollinating multiple times over the course of several hours. I've never heard of anybody obtaining seeds from this species from self-pollination. There was a paper several years ago that looked at self-compatible Australian Drosera but it appears that D. hamiltonii was not one of the species examined. I do not have a copy of the paper. It wasn't available online the last time I looked for it.

D. hamiltonii Esperance, SW Australia Third year in a row I've gotten flowers. The other plants I have are 2-3 weeks behind in flower development. I've stored some of the pollen in hopes it will remain viable.

Third year in a row I've started to get flowers from D. hamiltonii. This one started early as the others were end of May through June. I acquired these particular plants last summer and are hoping they may be a different clone from the previous plants I have. They were labled "Esperance WA" where as the others were merely WA. If I can get them to flower at the same time maybe I can get seeds.

oops, duplicate post. I got a popup saying there was an error posting as I replied to quickly (?). I waited a few seconds and clicked the post button again.

Stephan: After reading your post on the ICPS boards I repotted some of my D. hamiltonii into a deep pot. One of them flowered just last month. One of the plants in the 4 x 4 inch pots flowered last year. None of those flowered this year but it turns out they were infested with mealybugs. The colony in the deep pot does not produce offshoots in great numbers. It is my observation that when the roots are horizontal they start to produce offshoots. If the pot is deep enough the roots probably reach their optimal length without go horizontal by hitting the bottom of the pot. Possibly the energy that would go into growing flowers goes to production of offshoots. I believe deep pots make a difference. Other than that I had been growing this species for 4-5 years prior to it flowering. I was growing indoors but moved it outdoors so it would experience colder temperatures during the winter. I have recently acquired some plants with slightly more location data other than "WA, Australia" that my plants were labeled with. I'm hoping this may be a different clone from my previous plants and if I can get them both to flower at the same time I will be able to get seeds.