Antennae-bearing Utricularia

[Martin Hingst]

Hi,

not at all beauties, but quite unusual in their flower shape - here two pics of the antennae-bearing Utricularia:


U. capilliflora:


and U. dunlopii:


Regards

Martin

[Brian Barnes]

WOW!
Absolutely incredible flowers, Martin.
Thanks for sharing those with us.
Happy Growing,
Brian.

[BarryRice]

Nice, aren't they?

One thing you can't see in Martin's photos is that these flowers are actually very tiny.

One of the coolest things about the antennaed Utricularia is that while there are several such species, some of the species have antennae which emerge from the upper corolla lip (petal), while others have antennae emerging from the lower corolla lip.

Coolio!

B

[Martin Hingst]

Thanks :-)

To my knowledge there are four species described by now. Two bear the antennae at the upper lip (U. capilliflora, U. dunlopii), two at the lower lip (U. antennifera, U. dunstaniae).

But maybe there will be some new species to be described here. I grow a form of U. capilliflora, that has a 7-lobed lower lip, and antennae about 4cm long (while in U. capilliflora the lower lip should be 5-lobed, and the antennae in the range of 1-3 cm).

And 45 mm in height for an Utricularia flower is not too tiny ... though of course you are right here Barry - its mass is nearly nothing; when you dry it, there is not much residue

Regards

Martin

[thwyman]

Wonderful pictures Martin. Wonderful!

[BarryRice]

Hey Martin,

How many of these four species do you grow? Are they perennials or annuals? Easy or hard?

Barry

[Martin Hingst]

Hi Barry,

the short answer would be:
just these two, they're annuals, and I found them not difficult, and quite floriferous.

The somewhat longer:

As I said, there is one of my four forms of U. capilliflora that doesn't hit the species desciption too good, while the others match Taylor's taxonomic definition exactly. I am hesitating to postulate a new species here, and I am no taxonomist, but at least I would not be surprised if it would be separated from U. capilliflora one day.

My experience with the Pleiochasia annuals is, that they can last somewhat longer in culture, and even flower in a second season. But if seed set was good, then the story is over. I still have to check this more carefully with these two.

Culture requirements are as other lowland tropical Utricularia. I grow mine at high temperatures (above 20°C/night, 30-40°C/day) at high water level (soil level +/- some cm, submerged for longer periods) and high light level (around 1000W /m² of fluorescent lights in 20cm distance).
Germination is a bit tricky. Though they come from a nearly equatorial region, daylength seems to be important. I had success only when daylength was markedly below 12 hours.

Regards

Martin

[PingKing]

beautiful indeed

Later

Xavier

[BarryRice]

Martin,

This is important and interesting news. Have you published this in any of the CP journals? I hope you will. CPN would of course be a fine choice for such a piece!

How many generations have you grown this? A frustration I've had with some annual species has been in avoiding what I think is inbreeding depression. After a few years, the plants just lose vigor and fade away.

I do not know of others growing these species. Are you alone, or are there others doing this?

B

[Martin Hingst]

Hi Barry,

inbreeding depression? How long have you been in the annual business? Oh, this post will be quite a disappointment for you I suppose

The only annual I have grown over several generations (and tracked it!) is the African U. arenaria. I am just slowly discovering the secrets of the Australian annuals for me.
But I had the hope that the annuals would adapt even easier to our cultivation conditions, because of their faster alternation of generations. And therefore would grow even MORE vigorous after some years...
Another problem is, that I have too less space for really convincing test series. All I can say is the little out of my sparse experience. Maybe I should have written my previous post even more lowly. To be more correct now: I have sown seeds of several Pleiocasia annuals this winter, the one tank had about 13.5 h light, the other about 10.5. The other parameters I tried to keep identical. In the first tank nothing happened, in the other germinated 4 out of five U. capilliflora forms. But for a good proof that means nothing of course.

I once thought I had found the trigger for flowering in the NT Utricularia species (e.g. with U. fulva or U. odorata , see www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18121&hl=) in a decreasing of daylength. I had many good reasons to believe that. But then a friend told me, that he brought this same U. fulva clone to flower under constant 14 light. I am more carefully since then

But I have now started a bigger series with more Pleiochasia species under a stepwise reducing daylength. I am hoping to get sudden germination when I come to about 10 or eleven hours. Again no real proof if it comes to this - one could say it is just the slowly diffusing out of the inhibitors that takes time, or whatever. I will give my results this winter.

Regards

Martin

[BarryRice]

Hey Martin,

A very interesting post. Doo keep us informed!

B