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Wow! I was expecting a couple of flowers on one or maybe two scapes. What a great little display. Are the flowers darker than what they appear in the photos? Was the colony grown from seed? I didn't have much luck with mine. The only 2 seed that germinated were still within the tranparent ovary that was placed on the substrate with the seed. These 2 small seedlings didn't last long. :cry:

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Thanks for the nice comments. I got some seedlings last autumn (thanks again :D ). Three died down, but the last one made it. It grows in a small terrarium on a south-east facing window sill with a bit of artificial lighting, at room temperature and high water level. I exchanged the water about weekly.

The flower colour is paler than I expected. The photos are only slightly overlit so the true colour of the flowers is close to the colours in the pictures. Maybe in stronger sunlight they will produce the inkish colour they should have.

Though the plant produces runners, I have been told that division is a big problem. Maybe I will have some luck with pollination.

Regards

Martin

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  • 8 months later...

Some news about my plants and germination:

It seems to be an annual even in cultivation, luckily it produces seed quite well.

I have heard of some friends around, that they had problems in germinating the seed, even if they were fresh. That was surprising, as I have observed even self-sowing in my plant in early summer.

I have sown a big amount of seed in autumn, at room temperature, at daylenght below 12h, and got only one seedling after several months.

So I changed the conditions and have sown a new portion recently in my petiolaris tank - high temperature (30°C or more during the day, not below 20°C at night), very high water level and a daylength of 13 hours. The first seeds germinated within less than three weeks. So if you had no luck so far with those seeds, these conditions might make it work.

Good luck

Martin

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Hello Martin,

Well done! I'm glad to see that this picky plant has successfuly entered at least a few collections of CP enthusiasts! ;)

I have experienced the same, that flower colour is more pale if the plants are grown under artificial lights. "Typical" flowers of ink-blue colour (like those of the plants I have seen in their natural habitat on Doi Inthanon, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand) I have only observed on my plants grown in the greenhouse. Unfortunately, this species does not self under my growing conditions, thus I do not get any seed if the flowers are not pollinated by hand. I would strongly recommend not to try to propagate this plant by division. Every attempt of mine to do this lead to loss of both offspring and mother plant :happy:.

It is strange that you got better germination of U. babui under warm growing conditions. The location where this U. babui (i.e. all plants in cultivation ;)) had been collected is a montane seepage area on Doi Inthanon. Day temperatures were about 10-20°C, and according to a local Thai botanist, the temperature there can drop down to alomost freezing at night!

All the best,

Andreas

Edited by Andreas Fleischmann
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Thanks Andreas :happy:

I had some problems to get seed in the beginning of its flowering season, even with hand pollination. But after some time I observed that the flowers began to self .To be honest - I once observed a flower stalk in another pot where I really did not expect it. The new plant was hidden in the sphagnum, and its emerging stalk came quite surprising. So germination, growth to maturity and flowering of this offspring had to have occured within 4 months!

Interesting to read about the habitat conditions. So it is not always the only way to cultural success to imitate the natural conditions. Maybe the inhibitors are washed out better in the warm water, something that would occure in habitat by the streaming water.

Thanks again for bringing this beauty (and a lot of other nice species) in cultivation.

Regards

Martin

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  • 1 year later...
Hi Jarkko,

seed set is better if you pollinate the flowers. But I have observed selfing as well.

Regards

Martin

Okay, thanks a lot. Do you use a toothpick to pollinate them?
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