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Codariocalyx motorius (Desmodium gyrans) seedling


Kiwano

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Hi,

 

Today is a festival in my terrarium. Why ? Because, after many acharnements, I have succeeded to do germinate some Codariocalyx motorius seeds, or telegraph-plant.

 

All I can say it's that the germination rate is relatively low since, on ten seeds, four have germinated only.  :laugh2:

Here you have some pictures of the seedling, with some explanations.

 

 

13/05/2014

 

82723020140513192121.jpg


 

16/05/2014

 

48816120140516133719.jpg

 

 

24/05/2014

 

87556020140524175254.jpg

 

02/06/2014

 

50770920140602171813.jpg

 

 

42686520140602171826.jpg

 

 

For those who want to know how I've done :


 

- The seeds have hardened 3 or 4 days in water, kept hot (25°C-30°C).

 

- After that time, I observed that some seeds (fairly low, maybe 25%) swelled. But, at the contrary to what I knew, no sprout is appeared. However this swelling translated a water penetration inside the seed, so a begining of germination... I supposed that the integuments was too much tough, too much resistant to be perforated by the sprout. So I processed by a scarification with the swelled seeds (I cut volontary a part of the integuments, with precision not like a beef). In less than two days, four sprouts are appeared !

 

- I've transplanted the sprouts on a substrate composed with peat and sand (60%/40%). All of this has been placed inside my lowland terrarium, so approximatively 80% of hygrometry night and day, 30°C the day and 23°C-25°C the night.

 

- I should separate all the young plants in several pots now. But I know that this specie is hard to transplant because you must take care of its roots. In all cases, I already could observe many movements of the plants. They stay slow and you must not hesitate to look a long time if you really want to see. The movements are not continuous. The leafs subside or straighten all the time. 


Edited by Kiwano
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I grew some of these a few years ago. They germinated without any pre-treatment, but like you germination rate was low. Lost them shortly afterwards when the plastic green house i had them in blew away.

 

Nice to see you are having success with them, they are a fascinating plant. Mine had longer narrower leaves than yours at that stage

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Yes I was surprised concerning the form of the leaves. I've already saw a very big specimen in the botanical gardens of Caen and its leaves was really long compared with those of my specimens. I suppose it's due to the age of the different plants. Maybe young plants have rounder leaves than old specimens.  

 

I ask myself if the germination rate could not be higher if we scarify the seeds before their immersion in water...

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