Post by andreasfleischmann on Dec 21, 2008 17:27:10 GMT
Hello,
I found the time to edit some photos of my Australia CP trip again
At this beautiful location near the “town” of Cranbrook (it’s actually just a few houses along a road), carpets of Drosera ramellosa were covering the wet sandy soil.
The plants grew among grasses in partial shade, and were still covered by the morning dew. The night before had been extremely cold, down to 5°C. According to Allen Lowrie, occasional frost is common in this area, too.
Drosera ramellosa develops two stems with leaves (only very rarely one) and a bunch of flowers from a basal rosette of leaves. Even plants that do only bear one single stem can be distinguished from the related D. platypoda, which always flowers from the top of the stem. D. ramelossa, in contrast, always flowers from the basal rosette.
Drosera ramellosa is the only member of the D. stolonifera-complex that is not only self fertile, but even selfing regularly (autogamous)! Sometimes, the flowers do not even open, but self-pollinate cleistogamous. I did notice this in my cultivated plants already, and now observed this in plants in the wild, too.
Interestingly, the seed capsule of D. ramellosa is getting a reddish colouration while the seed is ripening. However, it’s a dry capsule when the seed is released, thus it’s not acting as a berry-like fruit for seed dispersal by animals.
All the best,
Andreas
I found the time to edit some photos of my Australia CP trip again
At this beautiful location near the “town” of Cranbrook (it’s actually just a few houses along a road
), carpets of Drosera ramellosa were covering the wet sandy soil.The plants grew among grasses in partial shade, and were still covered by the morning dew. The night before had been extremely cold, down to 5°C. According to Allen Lowrie, occasional frost is common in this area, too.
Drosera ramellosa develops two stems with leaves (only very rarely one) and a bunch of flowers from a basal rosette of leaves. Even plants that do only bear one single stem can be distinguished from the related D. platypoda, which always flowers from the top of the stem. D. ramelossa, in contrast, always flowers from the basal rosette.
Drosera ramellosa is the only member of the D. stolonifera-complex that is not only self fertile, but even selfing regularly (autogamous)! Sometimes, the flowers do not even open, but self-pollinate cleistogamous. I did notice this in my cultivated plants already, and now observed this in plants in the wild, too.
Interestingly, the seed capsule of D. ramellosa is getting a reddish colouration while the seed is ripening. However, it’s a dry capsule when the seed is released, thus it’s not acting as a berry-like fruit for seed dispersal by animals.
All the best,
Andreas
>(*~*)< / >(*U^)<
