Field Trip: California Carnivores (again)

Before this post, a programming note: The Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society is having their monthly beer social at the Westbrae Biergarten in Berkeley on Wednesday, 10-14 (tomorrow). The address is 1280 Gilman St., and is about a 10 minute walk from the North Berkeley BART station. We'll be there from 6-9, so come on by, drink some beers, and hang out. I'll probably bring some ping pulls to share. Okay, back to your regularly-scheduled blogpost.

I've been hanging out with a lot of carnivore folks lately. On Sunday Josh and I took a drive up to California Carnivores to see some folks and stare at some plants. Y'know, as you do. There was lots of great stuff in there (as usual), but a couple things caught my eye.

First up is this Nepenthes Viking × ampullaria Red Stripe. I'm only permitting myself one Nepenthes in this post, but I think this is worth it.

It looks like a candy apple.

Fly away little plant.

Look at that bright red little fatty with the big ole wings. This is a real show-stopper of a plant. I had actually never been in this part of California Carnivores. I'm not sure why. It's a big hothouse area. Guess I hadn't realized that door was there!

I spent a bit of time admiring their collection of weird VFT clones and cultivars. One of my favorite mutants is Dionaea 'Angel Wings'.

These are definitely non-functional traps.

Now that is a yonic plant.

I also quite liked the much more understated Dionaea 'Harmony'.

Such neat tidy little traps. Cute!

There's so much fun stuff back there. Just wait until this all gets in production, it's gonna be awesome for VFT collectors.

This Pinguicula sp. Tonala ANPA A had the best flower in the ping collection when I was there.

I love how different this flower is.

I wonder if this is the plant I lost the auction to Mike Wilder for. Hmm...might have to beg a pulling off of them.

The tuberous dews are starting to wake up over there. This is Drosera rosulata.

Tuberous dews are so much work. I should get more.

I should probably start to coax my two tuberous species out of dormancy. That'll be a major finger-crossing moment.

Near the tuberous are a couple of Drosera regia, including this insanely dewy tangle.

This is what doom looks like to order Diptera.

This species produces insane amounts of mucilage when happy. Just look at that!

Finally, the loveliest plant there was this Drosera intermedia × capillaris.

Even my non-plant friends think this plant looks awesome.

I really ought to have bought one, but I've definitely capped out my plant budget for this paycheck. Oh well, there's always next time.

P.S. If you're in the Bay, come to the social. It'll be a Hoot.

This post is just for sundews

Man, it's been feeling like Sarracenia Etc. around here. I must plead circumstance – first of all, I've got a lot of room for new Sarracenia and very little for new Drosera. It's also spring, so all the pitchers are waking up. And finally I keep battling the aphids in my indoor collection. But there's lots going on still, so let's get back to basics and look at some sundews.

First up, the season is over for my two tuberous species, Drosera ramellosa and Drosera rupicola.

This spot is now occupied by my new Drosera slackii.

They definitely went dormant earlier than expected. Now I've set them to dry out, after which I might see what the situation with the tubers is. At the very least I'm going to remove that horrible cap of moss on the pot and replace it with a layer of sand.

My other summer-dormant sundew, Drosera cistiflora, is still very much awake, and enjoying having been recently fed.

Looks like a feast.

 It hasn't formed a stem yet this year, and considering how late we are in the season I doubt that it will. Still, I'm glad that it's apparently so healthy. This one will almost certainly come back next season.

One of my smaller Drosera filiformis plants has woken up.

Always propagate. It's like insurance.

This is very satisfying, since the one that was on its way a couple months ago is now, beyond much doubt, definitely dead.

The question now is: do I keep waiting?

Maybe the shock of being moved up closer to the lights was just too much for it. I'll let the one that's still alive get a bit bigger before the move, I guess.

The first of my Drosera intermedia 'Cuba' seems to be waking up as well.

Wake up little guy.

This is the only plant among the 3 pots of D. 'Cuba' that seems to be waking, though the others are definitely still alive. We'll see.

Another Drosera hamiltonii has apparently sprouted from the roots.

I didn't expect to see these plants start offsetting.

This was sort of a surprise, since this species has always seemed only barely satisfied in my conditions. I guess it can't be so bad.

The two Drosera anglica CA × HI plantlets from the Summer Batch that I thought had died have apparently come back.

Propagation can surprise you.

I've fed them, so hopefully in a month or two we'll have some more of this excellent plant available.

Finally, the Drosera indica situation is still completely out of control.

This is too many plants.

I'm in the process of hardening these guys off. What I'll do after that is anyone's guess.

Feels good to get back to sundews! The aphids seem to be in retreat, so hopefully I'll be able to get back to normal sooner rather than later.

Winter growing plants are pretty cool

There are lots of ways to organize plants. It's something that real serious botanists spend whole careers doing – determining which plants are related genetically, or by ecosystem, or what have you. Hobbyist plant collectors have their own categorization schemes, which may or may not be strictly botanically valid. The hobbyists tend to focus primarily on cultivation requirements, since providing good conditions for plants (especially weird plants like carnivores) can be expensive or difficult, so it's nice to know what groups of plants can grow in the systems you've set up.

Sundew growers are particularly blessed/cursed in that Drosera is such a heterogeneous genus, with plants growing all over the world in all sorts of habitats (in contrast with, for example, Sarracenia, which have relatively similar needs in cultivation).

I have my own, thoroughly unscientific, categories which guide me in developing my collection.

Temperate (Drosera filiformis, Drosera rotundifolia)
South American (Drosera spiralis, Drosera camporupestris)
Petiolaris (Drosera ordensis, Drosera falconeri)
Tuberous (Drosera ramellosa, Drosera zonaria)
Pygmy (Drosera scorpioides, Drosera allantostigma)
Winter-growing South African (Drosera cistiflora, Drosera hilaris)
"Annuals" (Drosera burmannii, Drosera hartmeyerorum)
Assorted warm temperate, subtropical, and tropical plants (Drosera capensis, Drosera binata, the Three Sisters of Queensland)

I recently acquired a plant from a group new to me, the South African winter growers. This is Drosera cistiflora.

It started dewing up so quickly!

I acquired this plant through the Facebook group Carnivorous Plant Auctions and Sales. It's a great resource if you're looking to expand your collection or sell off a few of your extra plants. I've had some D. cistiflora seeds for several months but I hadn't given germination a shot because...well, I'm not sure why. In any case, this plant has acclimated pretty quickly, and it's even coloring up under my lights a bit.

Drosera ramellosa is another winter grower (though it's a tuberous species from Australia). It's not doing quite as well.

Don't go dormant yet! Come on!

The tips seem to be dying back, which is what it will do in summer as it goes dormant. But this is way, way too early to be dying back. It was sorta warm lately, but not that warm. I hope I don't lose this plant. We'll see what happens.

My Drosera rupicola (which I acquired at the same time) is doing much better.

I've fed this one a couple times.

The color is pretty good, and it's definitely still growing. Hope it stays that way.

Pygmy sundews are sort of winter growers. They're summer dormant at least. I've got a stray Drosera omissa growing in this Drosera grievei pot.

D. omissa is really a beast. They've gotten really big already.

I think some of the pygmies in the rear of this tray didn't get sprayed as well, so they have a much lower success rate. I guess I'll just have to wait to harvest some gemmae next year and then re-sow some of these pots. The lesson in this is to make sure that your pygmy pots are easily accessible when sowing on sand, since they definitely need to be kept moist.

The second round of pygmies is in a smaller tray, so hopefully they see more success as I spray them more regularly. This is Drosera oreopodion.

They're just specks.

Well, it's almost D. oreopodion. It'll be D. oreopodion soon. There aren't many pictures of this plant online, so I'm excited to see how it develops!