Naruto Togane CP Habitat, Japan

[bouncingwatermelon]

Today I had access to a car, so I decided to visit a protected habitat in Chiba Prefecture, well known by CP enthusiasts in Japan.

The site is a National Monument.
In the Edo period, the site was used as a quarry (not sure if that's the right word) to collect dirt for using in embankment projects, in which the Edo Shogunate was particularly interested. The former Edo area had numerous rivers, prone to flooding, and the Shogunate sought to stabilize its capital from the devastating effects of such floods without leaving itself isolated from the web of waterways, which could provide it with transportation, vital to any large city with a monstrous population.
As a result of this continuous disturbance, the site was kept free of tall sedges, which would have otherwise shrouded the cps from the sun.
This site was designated the first national monument of Japan in 1920.

Now some pics. Yay

picasaweb.google.com/yuki.k.tanaka/NarutoToganeCarnivorousPlantHabitatNationalMonumentJapan?authkey=Gv1sRgCO6c-Y3ZovDBZg

About D. peltata: is it possible for these guys to propagate via axil buds? The tiny plantlets seemed vigorous even when the main stem was dying. The plantlets seemed to drop from their stems readilly when poked with a stick.

It is kind of sad, that a once huge bog is now reduced a mere 3 hectares of land. The rest has been exploited as rice paddies, or more recently, residential estates, to meet the demands of increasing populations in the area.

A close up of the site. The triangles are wooden trails on which visitors can walk.
maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=35.592727,140.419629&spn=0.004729,0.009602&sll=35.592727,140.419629&sspn=0.004729,0.009602&t=h&z=17

And now a more broad view.
maps.google.com/?ll=35.541166,140.605774&spn=0.605653,1.229095&t=h&z=10

The approximate area of the historical marsh is the crescent area facing the Pacific.
Tomitaro Makino, one of the first Japanese botanists to adopt the taxonomic system developed by Linnaeus (note, that many Japanese plants have taxons credited by Makino), had documented the site as a fantastic wonderland of various marsh plants.

Sad, but it was nice to see the plants in situ.

[Apoplast]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. The aerial image of the site tells your story well. It is certainly a remnant habitat! I hope that is not a glimpse into the the future of all CP habitat.

I didn't realize that Drosera pletata's range extended that far north in Asia. I can't speak to the prospect of propagation of D. pletata from axial buds. However, the ancestral adaptations that species carries and the wide distribution make me think there are probably some very cool regional adaptations to the variability D. pletata experiences across its diverse range. If for nothing else, I'd bet susceptibility of the resting bulb to dormant rot must vary some. Who knows, perhaps you have a population that has a unique mode of clonal propagation compared with the rest of the species.

[bouncingwatermelon]

I've never grown D. peltata, but it seems that this plant has drastically adapted to the drier, colder winters of Japan by becoming a spring ephemeral. The tubers sprout in March, and die off in late June. It is a curious thing that the tubers would be able to discern spring from autumn, because it is underground and unable to use changing photoperiods to keep track of time.
I suspect that the growth habits of D. peltata nipponica are much faster than the autumn-sprouting subspecies. The reason it skips the rosette stage may be to efficiently position its leaves and raise its flowers above the thick growth in a short time.

[Apoplast]

Hi BouncingWatermelon -

I'm not surprised that the bulbs can sense seasonality, as this is the case for most bulbs. I suspect it is a temperature cue. Indeed, the spring ephemeral phenology you observe in D. peltata in Japan causes me to wonder about the thermal tolerances of this species while in active growth. It sounds as though the Japanese populations may be growing at the time of year that provides the same temperatures as the winter growing populations experience.

Perhaps there is currently a constraint of the evolution of thermal tolerance in this species? Only a common culture experiment would disentangle the responses to seasonality and temperature. I would think that such an experiment would also need to involve populations from less seasonal regions. Does anyone out there know the phenology of aseasonal populations?