|
Post by BarryRice on Apr 2, 2007 23:08:25 GMT
Hey Folks
I've been growing a single Drosera linearis plant for a few years now, the lone survivor from an ICPS seed pack. It is very slow growing, and after all this time is still only about 3cm tall. However, it is coming out of dormancy and I'm hoping this will be a good year for it.
Last fall, I visited one of the only sites for Drosera linearis in Montana, where a few disjunct populations occur. I was dubious about the IDs of these plants, but management staff at the sites gave me permission to collect a few dead leaves and a single fruit. (The plants were in dormancy.) The leaves, and the seed coats verified the ID, somewhat to my surprise. I have a lot of respect for the botanists who made the ID, of course. I guess I was just skeptical of the the presence of Drosera linearis in Montana!
I made a voucher herbarium specimen of the material I collected, but saved 10 seeds for germination trials. After a two month stratification I put them into a peat:sand pot, and I'm happy to say that two have already germinated! I don't know if they'll survive at all---at this stage a single bored snail could gobble them in one bite---but I have hopes. Who knows, maybe in 6 years I'll have seed for the seed bank!
Barry
|
|
|
Post by brianw on Apr 4, 2007 14:12:25 GMT
Greetings,
I was also skeptical of the occurence of D. linearis in Montana. I'm glad the the ID is correct. I recently found a book at the university published by the Montana Natural Heritage Program that listed all the rare plants in the state. Drosera linearis was in there, and at one site it is interbreeding with D. anglica. I also found it interesting that Utricularia intermedia has never been found in flower in Montana.
Good luck with the seedlings.
brian
|
|
|
Post by rsivertsen on Apr 4, 2007 14:46:25 GMT
Years ago, I tried to grow D. linearis from a site in Canada, where I also found it growing with D. rotundifolia and D. anglica (which is a little different than the D. anglica in Europe and in Bull Swamp in Oregon), and also found the hybrid into D. linaris, which was written up in CPN, and DonSchnell revisited this in 1999. The plants have a close resemble to D. capensis.
In those northern locales, the day length is extremely long, and had to grow the D. linearis under lights, and set the timers to 18 hr day lengths to get them to grow well; they came out of dormancy, flowered, set seed and went dormant again all within six weeks! I set the dormant hibernacula in the refrigerator for another six to eight weeks, and got them to come up again under those lights for a second season.
This continued for perhaps four growth cycles, but the plants seemed to be weaker each time, and finally died off. I sprayed the foliage with a diluted solution of fish emulsion fertilizer to help promote growth, perhaps they may have fared better if I fed them fruit flies, or exposure to direct full sunglight for part of its growth cycle.
It would be interesting to see if the Montana strain of D. linearis has a shorter day length requirement, and may be a little easier to grow out of its habitat.
There is another population of D. linearis in northern Maine, which is accessible only via an amphibious aircraft. The Canadian site and the Maine site are both limestone marl bogs, and the pH in the Canadian site tested neutral. The D. linearis plants grew directly in the water, (although a thin film), over the grey colored detritus silt above the limestone bedrock, while the D. rotundifolia and D. anglica grew in the mossy hummocks. It’s encouraging to see a stand of D, linearis grow in more acidic conditions, and in moss.
|
|
mabudon
Full Member
Metal King
Posts: 29
|
Post by mabudon on Apr 4, 2007 15:02:25 GMT
I got some seeds of this off a persons front lawn last summer (on the Western side of the Bruce Peninsula, in the marl fens there- the plants were on a well travelled path and seemd to be in jeopardy, but I asked permission and only took a couple fruits out of literally thousands) , I haven't observed any germination yet but I live close enough to where they came from that I imagine they should do okay- tho I AM growing them in a more acid medium, so I doubt they'll be much like the red plants seen in the fens
|
|
|
Post by BarryRice on Apr 4, 2007 16:32:01 GMT
I'm growing my plants in a standard peat:sand mix, I'll see how they do. The plants in Montana were in a cluster of three sites, I only had time to visit one of them. It was fall, and the hike was pretty stressful because of all the hunters (an an encounter with a couple of black bears). Unfortunately, the plants were all in dormancy, but they ID'd easily by leaf shape and (as I found later) by seed shape and coat. Here is a photograph of a plant: Here's my lovely wife poking around the muck, looking for hibernacula. Yes, that's snow. It was cold and wet! (She's got a rain poncho on over her coat and pack) But let's keep this thread on cultivation, or else we risk the Powers the Be moving this thread to news from the field...
|
|
mabudon
Full Member
Metal King
Posts: 29
|
Post by mabudon on Apr 4, 2007 16:52:03 GMT
Okay, cultivation it is Barry,have you had problems with your specimen going dormant WAY too early (as in Schnell's book and rsivertsens case, with the multiple "seasons" within a standard season) , or does it generally "behave" and only take one proper dormancy per year??
|
|
|
Post by ICPS-bob on Apr 4, 2007 21:09:50 GMT
(She's got a rain poncho on over her coat and pack) I am glad you clarified that. I was beginning to think that your trophy wife was auditioning for the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
|
|
|
Post by BarryRice on Apr 4, 2007 23:22:53 GMT
(She's got a rain poncho on over her coat and pack) I am glad you clarified that. I was beginning to think that your trophy wife was auditioning for the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Actually, if you sprinkle salt on her back, her head retracts back under its protective blue cover. (With any luck, she'll never learn of this thread.)
|
|
|
Post by BarryRice on Apr 4, 2007 23:28:48 GMT
Barry,have you had problems with your specimen going dormant WAY too early (as in Schnell's book and rsivertsens case, with the multiple "seasons" within a standard season) , or does it generally "behave" and only take one proper dormancy per year?? I've been concerned about this, but I haven't seen it yet. In general, I get the best results regarding dormancy by letting temperate plants like Drosera, Pinguicula go dormant naturally. Then I put them in baggies in the refrigerator for a nice long winter, as long as I dare. After this long, isothermal sleep, they seem to behave well during the summer. Mind you, I've only been growing these plants for a couple of years yet. Everything could collapse this year!
|
|
|
Post by rsivertsen on Apr 4, 2007 23:52:56 GMT
I found D. linearis in the Bruce Penn., near Oliphant, Canada, (the site mentioned earlier in this thread), with well ripened seed pods, and dormant hibernacula already well formed by the end of July; the leaves were still fully functional. Let's hope this Montana strain is more conducive to our conditions, and becomes another common fixture in our Drosera collections. It makes some awesome hybrids too!
|
|
|
Post by pinglover on Apr 6, 2007 2:12:57 GMT
I had a few of these plants and I went outside specifically looking for dormant hibernacula and I see nothing. How depressing.
|
|
|
Post by BarryRice on Apr 6, 2007 18:18:43 GMT
I just looked at my 3-year old plantlet that came from the seed bank. This is the first year that it is old enough that I can be confident it is not just D. anglica. The cricket-bat leaves are pretty distinctive.
B
|
|
|
Post by rhillier on Apr 19, 2007 19:10:14 GMT
I have found in my experience that D. linearis (the Ontario version anyway) seems to like a long and "hard" dormancy. They grow very exposed near the Lake Huron shoreline in this area and are totally exposed to the elements. If the fen is on the dry side, they will close up shop early, but I have seen years in the past where it was much wetter and the plants continued to produce leaves into September. Here is a pic of some linearis that I grew in 2004: I had these plants for a year in a pot before putting them in my bog in 2003. They came back nicely in 2004 and were coming in even better when my enclosure broke and the birds decided to use all of my moss and sundews for nesting. I got some new hibernacula from my cousin's lawn last fall and am hoping for the best this season. >>> Rick <<<
|
|
|
Post by pinglover on Apr 20, 2007 0:00:10 GMT
Very nice photo Rick. Mine weren't doing that well even before they went into dormancy.
|
|
|
Post by rhillier on Apr 20, 2007 1:49:20 GMT
They weren't even very happy that day, as it was fairly windy and dry, taking the dew right off of the tentacles. I have a pic somewhere of them in full bloom... I'll see if I can fish it out and post it.
>>> Rick <<<
|
|