Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Utricularia sandersonii "blue" flower

It looks like my U. sandersonii from Natch Greyes beat out my U. livida for the privilege of bearing my first (proper) terrestrial Utric flower.

Utricularia sandersonii blue form flower.
I had to take the pot out of its glass bowl for this shot. Such a tiny flower.
It's a tiny little flower, but is super cute up close.

Utricularia sandersonii blue form flower close up.
This flower is looking bashful for its beauty shot.
As you can see, it's not quite mature yet – the distinctive "bunny ears" on top haven't unfolded yet.

Utricularia sandersonii blue form flower close up.
Check out that awesome spur!
It does have this great spur though. Utrics really do have elaborate, orchid-like flowers, just in miniature! At least the terrestrials are miniature.

Just a couple weeks behind, but my U. livida is getting ready for what looks like the first of (hopefully) many mass flowerings.

Utricularia livida ready to bloom.
I'm expecting a big show of blooms any time now.
I'm really excited for the flowers to start popping open – so far I count 6 scapes. Gonna be really cute!

My Drosera 'Marston Dragon' is also blooming rather impressively.

Drosera binata 'Marston Dragon' flower stalk.
I like how this plant supports multiple blooms at once.
It's too bad that the buds are all right at the height of the lights, so I don't get to see them as often as I like. It's still quite cute.

The second flower has also opened on my Pinguicula gigantea.

Two Pinguicula gigantea flowers in the tray.
The Ping flower stalks flex up and down over the course of the day. I wish I could film it.
Pretty sure these are the cheeriest blooms in my whole collection. I believe one can self-pollinate P. gigantea, and if so I should get on that. This is such a cute little butterwort.


I'll keep the blog updated with any new Utric flowers.

2 comments:

  1. Is that sandersonii the Blue variant or ordinary? It seems bluer than normal... Well, in any case, whatever you're doing to them, they love it. Hard to believe that they're flowering already. Great growing! -N

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    1. Thanks Natch! That's definitely the blue form. I grow them about 18 inches under my T8 bulbs and every couple weeks I fill the water up almost to the top of the pots. I think they like being waterlogged occasionally.

      The flower looks even cuter now with its "ears" up btw.

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