Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'brunei'.
-
Well, today I give you closer inspections on the anatomy of the ant fern Solanopteris brunei, also called "potato fern". Solanopteris has (partly) a bad reputation of being difficult to grow. And at least I would second that it is challenging. And I am...I believe... infamous for my ability to kill hundreds if not thousands of plants due to my non-existent green thumb! HOWEVER Solanopteris brunei of all things has started to run riot under my care!!! How is that possible, lol! This is the whole plant as of yesterday afternoon: The black plastic basket has an edge length of 18 cm. I tend to let the soil become dry regularly. That´s the reason there are often many fronds with yellow edges aso. This ant fern rather dislikes being kept too wet. It can start rotting fastly if too wet! I grow this plant since spring 2009 if I´m not wrong. It originates from Wistuba nursery. (And I have divided it two years ago!) Currently I count 14 breeding chambers (potatoes) for the ant species symbiotic to this fern. Most of them are covered by the bed of fronds. A very nice group of four potatoes. The potatoes are first greenish with white hairs and fastly turn blackish with brown hairs when grown up. from another angle I love these dark and hairy balls! I have pulled out these two potatoes a little to show you the entry to the interior for the ants. Unfortunately the hole into the ball is overgrown by lots of fine roots. The entry into the potatoes is on their underside. Another one of the 14 potatoes. :) You can spot the small scales on the surface of the ball. And a close up. :) The balls are mostly around two centimetres in diametre. Sometimes slightly larger and sometimes slightly smaller. I have victimised one potato for some surgical examinations... This is the underside with the hole into the interior. On this potato I have removed the fine roots. You see how small the entry is. Must be quite tiny ants which use this hollow balls for their brood. Well...not a first class hotel I guess... Finally: A nice frond with spores. :o) I hope I have helped to broaden your horizons. =O)) Unfortunately I cannot show you the symbiotic ants of this peculiar plant! Andreas
- 13 replies
-
- Solanopteris
- brunei
-
(and 3 more)
Tagged with: