BZ 1955 Venus' Fly Trap

[jonathan87]

I hope this is in the right category.

Does anyone know where I can purchase some BZ 1955 Venus' Fly Trap seeds? I live in Canada btw.

[paulbarden]

Why the interest in this specific selection? The owner of the plants describes the variety as "typical" and it isn't unique. It was a mass produced plant from a Woolworths dept. store.

[jonathan87]

Jun 14, 2014 16:15:55 GMT paulbarden said:

Why the interest in this specific selection? The owner of the plants describes the variety as "typical" and it isn't unique. It was a mass produced plant from a Woolworths dept. store.

Well the reason is because it is the closest vft to the wild ones. That variety is actually taken from a wild form back in 1955 and since then it has been produced via TC,Division & propagated through other techniques. I am a stickler for naturals and I know it sounds strange but that's just the way I am. I don't even like unnatural hybrids of Sarracenia,Nepenthes or Drosera or any other plant for that matter. I like natural beauty and not man made beauty in plants to be honest. I don't want a Flytrap that has a TC induced mutation is what I am trying to say. I want one that is as close to the wild form gene as possible without the effect of TC bringing out a certain characteristic. Because TC induced ones are well man made to bring out a characteristic. 

Here's the description: BZ 1955 is a colorful, vigorous and historical Venus Flytrap, the very first Venus Flytrap bought by well-known United States carnivorous plant grower and expert Bob Ziemer in 1955 from the Woolworth Five and Dime store on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley, California. This Venus Flytrap has been in continuous cultivation since 1955 and shared by division and more recently by tissue culture propagation." In 1955 all of the plants sold in stores were harvested from the wild or were offspring from plants that were harvested from the wild, so it's the closest thing that you will find.
Source: www.flytrapcare.com

[ICPS-bob]

paulbarden is correct. The only "unique" aspect of this plant is that I have grown that particular clone continuously since I purchased it in Berkeley in 1955. I did not register it as the cultivar Dionaea ‘BZ 1955’ (R.Ziemer, Bailey & McPherson). That was done without my knowledge in Bailey & McPherson's book, Dionaea. Since the clone is a typical VFT, and has no special characteristics, I see no reason for it being a cultivar. I had been using an informal name "1955" for years and for some silly reason the Flytrap Store put it in tissue culture and called it "BZ 1955".

As a further caution: Please do not use plants resulting from seeds of any cultivar to represent that cultivar. The seedlings will likely not retain the unique characteristics of the cultivar. That is why most cultivar descriptions contain the admonition "must be reproduced vegetatively to preserve the characteristics of the cultivar".

[paulbarden]

While there is merit in seeking out instances of species that have NOT ever been through tissue culture, there are plenty of varieties of Dionaea out there that qualify - variants that have occurred naturally, by sexual methods. No matter what, there is no Flytrap on Earth that qualifies as a "hybrid" since it is a monotypic genus. Tissue cultured mutations are just that: mutations, but by no stretch of the imagination should they be thought of as hybrids.

Of course, it is too early in the season to have seeds coming available yet, but perhaps if you asked Bob nicely, he might help you out in the fall.

[jonathan87]

I do have a question for ICPS-Bob.
How sure are you that a 1955 Venus'Fly Trap is a wild specimen? Are you 100% or some other percentage value?

[ICPS-bob]

I have no information about the origin of the 3 rhizomes (called bulbs then) that I purchased in a sealed packet at a Woolworth's five-and-dime on Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley in 1955. I do not remember the company that distributed the packages. The rhizomes were large and robust. They might have been produced from a nursery, but they also could have been extracted from the wild or someone's farm. I doubt CP were produced by tissue culture at that time.

As I have said many times, there is nothing special about these plants other than I have grown them (their divisions) continually since 1955. I would never have considered them worthy of being a special cultivar. Others decided to publish the name without my knowledge or concurrence.