Wednesday, January 20, 2016

South American Drosera roundup, January 2016

I've become quite keen on South American sundews lately. They're a sort of intermediate difficulty – rarer than the South African subtropicals (Drosera capensis etc.) and harder to propagate. However, they haven't proven all that much more difficult to grow, at least not in my conditions. In fact, they seem to like my conditions quite a bit. Drosera felix is even blooming for me!

Drosera felix aka Drosera kaieteurensis with flower stalk forming.
Incredible red color and a fuzzy flower stalk. What's not to like?
Look at at that flower stalk. It's so fuzzy! Apparently lots of people consider this plant synonymous with Drosera kaieteurensis, but I'm going to keep referring to it as D. felix because that's how I received it (in case taxonomy gets reshuffled again), and because it's an adorable name.

My Drosera graomogolensis root cuttings are going well!

Drosera graomogolensis root cuttings.
Two so far. They're big too!
I think I can get 2 or 3 more plantlets out of this root, so I'm going to leave the humidity tent on for a while more. Very pleased with the progress so far. Really looking forward to being able to harden this guy off.

My largest Drosera tomentosa seedling is still pretty small.

Drosera tomentosa seedling.
So little still. Good luck buddy!
I've fed these guys once or twice, but I think I should do it again. This is the perfect size to start really feeding. Gotta be careful about mold though – lately that's been much more common when I'm feeding my sundews. Not sure why.

Drosera sessilifolia is another South American species, though I almost forgot about it for this post. I group it with Drosera burmannii in my mind, since they're both in Drosera subgenus Thelocalyx.

Drosera sessilifolia.
There are a lot of flower stalks going on in this pot. I need to address that somehow.
Those two in front got a heavy feeding recently, which is why they're not showing as much color. They also got a lot of mold on the food, I think because I had ground it a few days prior and left it out to accumulate mold spores. Lesson learned!

Finally, my favorite of the South American plants, Drosera spiralis.

Drosera spiralis.
I really, really like this plant a lot.
It's perennially difficult to get a good photo of this plant, since it grows right up into the lights. That's actually a problem I need to solve soon, since I want to start prepping it for the BACPS show in June. I guess I can always raise the lights a bit. Killer plant though, it's supporting almost 6 leaves right now. That's a lot for this species!

If you've had success with Drosera for a year or so I strongly encourage you to try out some South American forms. They're quite nice, and very satisfying. And if you grow any SA sundews, hit me up! I'd love to trade and talk shop.

6 comments:

  1. I just got myself a graomogolensis. I used to have 3 that were doing super well on my WINDOWSILL out of all places, I decided to try to feed them and they all rotted up. Really happy to have one in my collections again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh man that sucks. Glad you were able to get a new one, it's a great plant!

      Delete
  2. It's ok. We learn from mistakes, mine is probably same size as yours. I just wanted to say I love your posts, I check your website every day :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw thanks. Makes me feel bad for not posting more often lately.

      Delete
  3. South American Drosera are the best! I have riparia, roraimae, felix, latifolia, graomogolensis, communis, and viridis. We should trade sometime. I use long-fibered sphagnum for all of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know I'm always down to trade. Those all sound great btw.

      Delete