Difference between 'Red Dragon' & 'Royal Red'

[zhilin]

I am confused by the two species. In The Savage Garden by Peter, it reads:" 'Red Dragon' is an all-red cultivar". For 'Royal Red', it reads:" 'Royal Red'...with reddish petioles and traps."

Seems there is no difference between them

[marcel]

Roughly the difference is that 'Royal red' has green margins at the traps, Red Dragon or 'Akai Ryu' to give it its proper name is completely red except maybe some green in the center of the plant in mid winter.

see this page:

www.carnivorousplants.org/cultivars/names.php?name=Dionaea

[zhilin]

Oct 21, 2009 17:02:18 GMT marcel said:

Roughly the difference is that 'Royal red' has green margins at the traps, Red Dragon or 'Akai Ryu' to give it its proper name is completely red except maybe some green in the center of the plant in mid winter.

see this page:

www.carnivorousplants.org/cultivars/names.php?name=Dionaea

Hi, Marcel,

Thank you. The web says that the 'Royal Red' have red traps with green edge. But I found some 'Royal Red' have wholly red trap. For example, see:

cpforums.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=12779

In the figure, even a single 'Royal Red' has wholly red trap and red trap with green edge.

Are the genes of 'Royal Red' not stable?

I also saw some figures of 'Red Dragon' has red trap with green edges, e.g.:

dom1234.deviantart.com/art/Dionaea-Akai-Ryu-trap-2-37026028
www.dionaeadiversity.com/akairyu.htm


So, still confused...

[Alexis]

Both plants will go completely red given enough light.

They look very similar, but I've found Royal Red more vigorous and with larger traps.

[Aidan]

Oct 21, 2009 20:06:52 GMT zhilin said:

So, still confused...

Frankly, so is everyone. The all-red Dionaea are a mess and if you can pull all the labels out of pots and put them back in the right places... then you are a better man than I! With few exceptions the all-red plants appear very similar and mislabelling over the years means that many plants in circulation among collectors are not what they purport to be.

I was once told that 'Royal Red' may be distinguished from other all-red forms by examining the trigger hairs. Supposedly, the center hair is significantly shorter than the outer pair.

[mmlr38]

I can't tell much of a difference between any of the red clones that don't have distinct cilia (i.e. Bohemian Garnet and Red Piranha). They all look basically the same to me. I think Clayton's Red Sunset has a different trap shape that I could pick out. But Red Dragon, Green Dragon, Holland Red, Royal Red and others all look basically identical to me.