Guest Baphomet Posted March 9, 2004 Report Share Posted March 9, 2004 Hello all! Here in Italy there is a competition to make u.stygia flower. In italy it has never flowered. Who of you has ever made u.stygia flower? What condition have you given it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted April 13, 2004 Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 I am growing U stygia from the AIPC conservation project. For some reason only one of the turions came into growth for me, and I thought I'd lost them all for a while, but it's now doing well. I expected it it to grow like other small aquatic species and it's just in an ice-cream tub with a smattering of peat on the bottom. However, it seems to want to grow as a kind of affixed aquatic, with its base rummaging along the bottom, and the growing tip pointing upwards, and not free-floating, which indicates that it wants a thick layer of substrate and fairly shallow water. Is this correct? I'd be obliged to know what the best culture for this would be. How are the other recipients doing? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted April 14, 2004 Report Share Posted April 14, 2004 Well, what do you know! No sooner do I post that, than I go home and find my plant has abandoned its bottom-rooted nature and begun floating like others. Still, it would be useful for any tips on it... Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antipatic Posted April 14, 2004 Report Share Posted April 14, 2004 Hi Rob, my stygia (from the AIPC conservation project too) is living in a 60cm tank with peat and some carex and a lot of critters. seem to be healty but it never flowering Piero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted April 14, 2004 Report Share Posted April 14, 2004 Do you think it would grow ok in company with Aldrovanda...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antipatic Posted April 14, 2004 Report Share Posted April 14, 2004 i don't know, i know stygia prefer to live in low depth ponds(less than 30cm).... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndreaC Posted May 1, 2004 Report Share Posted May 1, 2004 Hallo Rab, the U.stygia is a floating plant that lives berthed on the bottom. As substrate is better not to use peat that it develops seaweed filamentous, but sand and mud of river, lives in limestone waters. It can living also on humid lands, single irregularly floods to you, but the cultivation is optimal in large containers in order to create micro abitat with carex, thypa, micro animals and aquatic snails, many profits why they eat the seaweed filamentous. for high information it watches following link: http://bestcarnivorousplants.com/aldrovand...da_outdoors.htm Excuse for my english. Reguards, AndreaC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted July 28, 2004 Report Share Posted July 28, 2004 I am resurrecting this thread! A few people would have recieved the turions generously distributed last winter. How are everyone's doing? And in what conditions are you keeping them? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tamlin Dawnstar Posted July 30, 2004 Report Share Posted July 30, 2004 Mine are in the water trays where the Sarracenia sit outside. The plant is doing very nicely there, receiving broken sun screened by the tall pitcher plants. I notice a paucity of bladders on mine, but other than that it is thriving. I might win the race! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted July 30, 2004 Report Share Posted July 30, 2004 This plant has a growth habit similar to U. intermedia, maybe in order to induce flowering the plant has to be threatened with drought. Has anyone tried allowing the water to evaporate to very shallow levels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob-Rah Posted August 4, 2004 Report Share Posted August 4, 2004 A number of people who had some of this off me have asked for growing tips. Mine's doing exceedingly well and has filled its container, which it shares with Aldrovanda - also doing stupendously well for me under these conditions. My method is almost the same as for other aquatic utrics except the depth of water and the substrate. It's in a household, opaque, plastic storage box, 18" long, 12" wide and 8" deep. On the base is 2" of peat overlaid with a thin layer of sharp sand. Then on top of this is a 2" layer of sedge litter, which was boiled in two changes of water before use. The water depth is therefore clear for only 4". The water is rainwater in which peat was boiled and then strained out. The plant gets bright light and air temps up to 32C. Planted in the same container in 5" square mesh pots standing on the peat are typha minima and carex panicea, and a small water hyacinth floats on the top. A number of small water snails graze in the tub, and it gets a bag of fresh daphnia every month or so (the Aldrovanda and utric gobble most of them up quickly!) to assist against algae. Once the tank stabilised against algae (which occurs as the utrics and aldrovanda start out-competing it), then it ceases to be a problem. As many people who have had some from me will have found out, the plant is terribly interesting in that it forms two different types of stolons. One is leafy and surface-dwelling. Then it also produces trap stolons which only have traps. These plunge downwards into the sedge litter and peat. My plant is virtually an affixed aquatic with the multitude of trap stolons anchoring it to the bottom. It really is not free-floating at all. I started with five turions last year. They were placed into an icecream tub of water, with no substrate, to overwinter in the greenhouse (min 2C - though the turions can take it down to below freezing under the ice in the wild). In spring all but one died. This one experimented with bottom-dwelling, trying to anchor itself to something, before floating to the top and being generally weedy. Since I placed it into this new tank setup it has exploded in growth. In view of this I think it terribly important to provide this thick layer of substrate at the bottom. My U. vulgaris has already flowered, and my U. radiata is sending up spikes now (pics soon!), and these sit in similar tanks, without the sedge litter and 4" deeper, next to this in the greenhouse. I have hope that I can get U. stygia to flower as it's doing so well, but so far there is no sign of spikes. Oh well. I will try to get some pics of it to post, although it's not terribly thrilling to look at a surface covered with greeness.... I can't remove it to photograph in a jar due to its aforementioned bottom-anchoredness. Thanks for the generous distribution of these turions last year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tamlin Dawnstar Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Wow Rob, great post - thanks for the detailed account! I will be making some changes as soon as I get over this bad back (too much fun at 53 I'm afraid). I found with the aquatic Utricularia an opaque container made all the difference. Trying to use transparent aquaria grew great algae, but Utricularia did not prosper. I did notice that on my plants there are two distinctly different stolons: the bladderless stolons are by far more numerous. Sludge here I come! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giles_KS Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 I am not sure if I still have the U. stygia from the 2 turions you sent me. However, some Irish U. minor & intermedia (actual intermedia) are growing extremely well in my water trays, with no special treatment. However, there have been no signs of flowering this year. I saw U. intermedia growing last year in litter of Cladium mariscus at the edge of a lake in Galway Ireland. The white stolons with traps were growing vertically down into the litter, where presumably there is far more to catch, and anchoring the plant. The same species was also very abundant in peat cuttings mixed in with U. minor, which was flowering. Giles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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