Friday, September 5, 2014

Community pot growing up

Back in January I went to my first BACPS meeting, held at the SF Conservatory of Flowers. It was really fun and interesting, and while there I acquired this pot of plants.

Pot of mixed Drosera.
The mix pot, 1-28-14. My collection grew by 3 species that day!
Nothing was labeled, but a couple weeks later I dutifully unpotted it, separated the big sundew, and stuck all the others in a pot together, since they were all on the small side. In the full course of time the large plant was identified as Drosera aliciae, and the others as Drosera tokaiensis and Drosera allantostigma (there were also a couple of D. aliciae seedlings in the group pot). I've ended up thinking of it as the "community pot," since most of my other pots contain a single species (besides the various carnivorous and non-carnivorous weeds that end up moving in).

Here's how it looked a week or two after repotting.

Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera aliciae, and Drosera allantostigma.
Community pot, 2-15-14. Starting to fill in.
The large plant in the center is D. tokaiensis, D. allantostigma is in the foreground, and a D. aliciae seedling is in the back (another D. aliciae seedling is out of frame in front). Luckily, this particular pot has been fairly well documented in the last half year, so we can watch them all grow up. It's pretty neat!

Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera aliciae, and Drosera allantostigma.
Community pot, 3-1-14.
Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera aliciae, and Drosera allantostigma.
Community pot, 3-15-14.
Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera aliciae, and Drosera allantostigma.
Community pot, 4-7-14.
Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera aliciae, and Drosera allantostigma.
Community pot, 5-21-14.
Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera aliciae, and Drosera allantostigma.
Community pot, 8-4-14.
Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera aliciae, and Drosera allantostigma.
Community pot, 8-20-14.
I've mentioned before that D. allantostigma is one of my favorite sundews. Along with that, I've gotta say that this is one of my favorite pots. I like the way the 3 species are growing together as a sort of community (even though they're from 3 different continents), and even the moss is filling in in a pleasing way. I should start a couple more group pots like this. Maybe even a mini-bog like they have at California Carnivores!

In the mean time, I can continue to admire this little group. They're so friendly!

Drosera tokaiensis, Drosera aliciae, and Drosera allantostigma.
The community pot, 9-4-14.

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