field of leucophyllas in cultivation! (various populations)

[meizwang 186]

I've always wanted to produce a gigantic field of leucophllas and have been attempting to do that forever, but haven't really been able to get anywhere.  It just takes way too many plants, and you have to space them out much more than any other species (or so it seems) in order to get good fall traps.  Well, now that I'm in this new location, space isn't much of a limitation, so the first attempt to make a field of leucos was made.  Turns out, it's more like 2 rows of leucos than a field, but good enough!  

 

Technically speaking, this isn't one population, but multiple populations from various localities.  There's albas, pinks, reds, regulars, and weirdos all up in the mix.  These looked a bit ratty all summer long because there were tons of spring traps that had fallen over and turned brown, but I spent all weekend cleaning them up and now they look pretty nice!  Interestingly enough, there are some late summer traps, but the main fall traps haven't yet shot out yet, so these will likely become even more impressive prolly in the next month or so.  The growth points on many plants are showing fall traps, but a few are still spitting out phyllodia.  

 

Here's some pics, photos taken 8/14/16:

 

Here you can see some of the bigger "fall traps" being produced.  They're sparse at this time of year, and usually we don't see these traps until September at the earliest here in Northern California:

 

 

 

 

 

I took a couple of "face" shots from the population, and they'll probably look more impressive in a few weeks.  These late summer traps are generally a lot more dull looking, but still interesting enough to post:

 

One of the sneakiest chameleons of them all, S. leucophylla var. alba Covington Co, AL.  Sometimes, the fall traps look like regular leucophylla, but I finally caught this one looking quite white:

 

a peculiar looking leucophylla from northern Baldwin Co, AL.  Probably had some hybridizing in it's distant past:

 

If the late summer trap on this S. leucophylla Baldwin Co, AL looks like this, can't wait to see the fall traps!  Last year, this clone only produced phyllodia, but this year it has some strong looking growth emerging:

 

 

I think this one is washington Co, AL:

 

A typical trap from Eastern Alabama.  These genotypes tend to produce both strong spring and fall pitchers here in Northern California, and are possibly more resilient to cooler grow season temps:

 

 

This clone from Baldwin Co, AL had been pollinated, and I don't see any fall traps emerging regretfully.  A lot of the times, when the plant focuses energy into seed production, it doesn't always have a spectacular fall show:

 

Same trap as above:

 

Random clone, no idea where it's from.  Nice "asparagus" fall pitcher developing in the background:

 

 

Now this is a washington Co, AL leuco:

 

Yup, even my wife  said this one was "cute" and she has the highest standards out of anyone I know:

Edited August 26, 2016 by meizwang

[meizwang 186]

some more cool leucophylla close up pics, photos taken 8/25/16:

 

baldwin Co, AL:

 

 

another Baldwin Co, AL clone:

 

Eastern Al:

 

Another Eastern Al clone, these are robust, vigorous, and these seem to produce nice spring pitchers despite cool weather:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Washington Co, AL:

 

 

Washington Co, AL

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2016 by meizwang

[Richard Bunn 444]

Wow. Great collection of leucos there Mike.

[S Krelbourn 32]

Stunning,a truly inspirational collection. Thanks for posting.

[ada 649]

Good show there Mike,nice to see someone noticing that some leuco's are better at producing larger pitchers in cooler conditions

[tatter 30]

that's a great looking collection than you for posting pics

 

jim

[meizwang 186]

Thanks everyone for the positive feedback!

 

Ada-I suspect that the leucophyllas from Eastern Alabama have better cold tolerance because they may have hybridized with flava rugelii many generations back (flavas do occur with them side by side in situ).  Once they became "leucophylla dominant mooreis" they flowered after the flavas, so they kept getting back-crossed with leucophylla for several generations to the point that you can't tell flava was in the mix to begin with.     Now that I think about it, many of the leucophyllas from the wilkerson's bog in Northern Walton Co, FL (near the same latitude as the Eastern AL plants) also produce nice spring pitchers.  Coincidentally, there are also flavas at that site as well, with many hybrids in between.

 

 

To help support this back-crossing hypothesis, check out these photos:

 

 

Here's a S. flava var. rugelii with a slightly white top, suggesting hybridizing generations back.  Hard to tell from this photo, but the lid on this one was slightly white:

 

 

  Check out how skinny the neck is on this one, which suggests historic crossing with S. flava rugelii.  In Northern Baldwin Co, AL, I have yet to see a single plant with a neck like this, you only find these sort of plants where flava rugelii and leucophylla live close by:

 

 

Slightly off topic, but there's an outstanding bright white alba from the eastern AL population, sooo beautiful!  

 

 

 

 

[meizwang 186]

some updates, photos taken 9/5/16 and a couple of days later:

Some eastern Al individuals:

This pic below was taken on Sept. 12th, traps have really filled in: