Sundew hybrids

There just aren't that many sundew hybrids. In part it's because of the genetic diversity in the genus. As much as one might wish to cross Drosera burmannii with Drosera cistiflora it's just not going to happen – Drosera species can only be crossed with relatively close relatives. Sarracenia and Nepenthes species, on the other hand, can all freely hybridize and produce fertile offspring.

Another limiting factor is that sundew hybrids are, broadly speaking, boring. Compare Drosera ×tokaiensis, probably the most well-known sundew hybrid (Drosera spatulata × rotundifolia) with Sarracenia ×catesbaei, one of the most common Sarracenia hybrids (Sarracenia flava × purpurea). To the untrained eye the two parents of D. ×tokaiensis are almost indistinguishable, while the parents of S. ×catesbaei are strikingly distinct. Morphological difference between parent plants is the most basic element in making an interesting hybrid.

Anyway, I started thinking of all this when I took this picture of Drosera ×snyderi to show to my friend Josh.

It took these plants a bit to settle in, but they're looking good now (aside from the aphid spraying).

D. ×snyderi is the unpublished, botanically invalid name for Drosera dielsiana × nidiformis. It's a pretty good-looking plant, really, and actually produces viable seed. It was created by the mad scientist of Drosera hybrids, Ivan Snyder.

Right nearby is this highly desirable hybrid, Drosera ×"Andromeda". Another unpublished name, this one indicates Drosera schizandra × prolifera.

Plantlets! At least two!

This plantlet is the one I started directly on the moss. The cutting I started in water and then transferred to the moss seems to have withered. Another data point against the water float method for me – transfer to media seems to really mess with the plant.

Some sundew hybrids are really fantastic, such as this Drosera ultramafica × spatulata.

This hybrid really snuck up on me to become awesome.

This pot got 3rd in Sundews at the recent BACPS show. It's a beautiful bright red, even with regular feeding. I had thought that this was a sterile hybrid but I was wrong! There are plantlets all over my collection now.

The only rival the above plant has for redness in my collection is this Drosera ×tokaiensis, the "×" symbol signifying a man-made, rather than natural, hybrid of D. spatulata and D. rotundifolia.

This guy has been sadly ignored on the blog heretofore.

This plant is a darker, more maroon red color, and is in fact sterile. In case you're curious, by the way, you can make the × symbol by holding the ALT key and pressing 0-2-1-5 on the numpad in that order.

The natural D. tokaiensis is not quite as red, but it sets seed and has a charm all its own.

The Community Pot is one of my oldest groups of sundews.

I've definitely neglected the Community Pot lately (I lost Drosera allantostigma, alas), but it's just been chugging along. Need to trim those flower stalks though.

I also have some pygmy sundew hybrids! The first, Drosera ×Dork's Pink, indicates Drosera lasiantha × callistos, a man-made hybrid that was published in a recent issue of the CPN.

A pretty plant with a silly name.

For my money this is one of the prettiest pygmies going. The dew isn't as stunning as usual because I recently sprayed for aphids, but the color is wonderful.

There's also Drosera ×carbarup, a naturally occurring D. occidentalis × platystigma.

These are showing a bit of aphid damage unfortunately.

There are several widespread pygmy hybrids, in fact. I tend to shy away from hybrids as a general rule, so I've yet to acquire most of them. This one is very nice though!

One of my favorite hybrids is another Ivan Snyder creation, Drosera anglica CA × HI.

Got extra plantlets to spare too!

This plant mixed the large, robust, but dormancy-requiring California form of D. anglica with the tropical, dormancy-free, but small and fragile Hawai'i form. The result is one of the prettiest plants in my collection. This is one of my absolute favorites.

Finally, if I'm going to include D. anglica CA × HI I have to include Drosera 'Marston Dragon', which is a hybrid of Drosera binata dichotoma "Giant" with D. binata multifida extrema.

That's a lot of plant.

The botanical validity of all those names is in doubt, by the way. But there's no doubt that this is a huge sundew. I need to do something about it.

Some stuff blooming inside

I noticed that my Drosera spiralis is starting another flower stalk.

Check out that wonky leaf too. I don't know why it grew like that.

This is a great plant! I really need to do some root cuttings.

Let's see what else is blooming around the growspaces.

Pinguicula laueana × emarginata flower. Very elegant.

Pinguicula emarginata. It's fun to compare with the hybrid flower above.

Emerging Drosera binata flower stalk. I think I'll turn this one into cuttings.

Drosera capensis. I received this as a broad leaf form. the leaves aren't that broad, but it's a large, impressive plant.

Of course there are a million Utricularia bisquamata and Utricularia subulata blooms everywhere. It's nice to see everything blooming so nicely.

Introducing Drosera capillaris 'Emerald's Envy'

I've hinted a couple times in the last few weeks that I have a fun story to tell about the plant I've been calling Drosera capillaris (Alabama). It turns out I discovered a rare cultivar right under my nose!

My first flower stalk on this plant in a long time. I need to get some more seed!

It started several months ago when I was browsing the ICPS website's list of registered cultivars. If you're looking for a really nerdy way to spend an hour or two, go spend some time reading cultivar descriptions, it's pretty cool. I came across the description for Drosera 'Emerald's Envy', which was a white-flowered form of D. capillaris that was collected from a population in Florida. It reminded me of my plants.

However, since my plants were labeled as being from Alabama, rather than Florida, I didn't want to assume that this was the cultivar. This all changed when I was over visiting Predatory Plants and noticed that Josh had the same D. capillaris plant (from California Carnivores). He told me that the "Alabama" on the label was a result of misreading the handwritten abbreviation "AL", which was supposed to stand for "Albino" or "alba".

My favorite picture of this plant before I separated the clump.

I had to investigate further. First I contacted Damon at California Carnivores, who confirmed the story about the labels, adding that he didn't know the exact provenance of the original seeds they got, but that they very well could be from Florida. Next I contacted William Clemens, who registered the cultivar in 2006 (he's active on TerraForums as Joesph Clemens). Based on the picture I sent him and my description of the plants, he felt that my plant was indeed D. 'Emerald's Envy', which he was afraid had gone extinct in the 9 years since he registered the cultivar.

To quote from the cultivar description:

"...the entire leaf petiole and blade exhibit light to medium green coloration, even when grown in strong artificial light or full sunlight...the flowers of Drosera 'Emerald's Envy' are white--a somewhat unusual color (although white-flowered plants are occasionally encountered in the wild)...Drosera 'Emerald's Envy' may be propagated by seed or vegetative means, but no matter how the plant is propagated, in order to retain the name Drosera 'Emerald's Envy', the progeny must exhibit the light green leaf color, white flower color, and maintain the form of the standard, even when grown under conditions of strong light (including full sun)..."

You can read the full article here. Compare that description to the plants above, as well as to these long-arm form D. capillaris I got during the NASC auction.

These have really settled in and are looking great, btw.

While the long petioles are a big difference, the color is really the striking thing. That red color is much more typical of D. capillaris.

Mr. Clemens was happy that this cultivar is still circulating, and so am I! It's really a lovely plant, and now it's got a cool name to boot. I've sold a few packets of seed over the last year – if you bought one of them I guess it's time to update your labels! Also if you bought a plant from California Carnivores with the label "Drosera capillaris Alabama" that displays the above characteristics you can as well. I think it would be cool if this cultivar could be more widely-recognized. It's easy to grow and propagate, and charming as heck.

Drosera 'Emerald's Envy'.

Now that's a pretty plant.

BACPS 2015 Annual Show and Sale

This past Saturday was the Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society's Annual Show and Sale at the Lake Merritt Garden Center in Oakland, CA. It was a fun day! Unfortunately I got very little sleep the night before – one of those nights where you just stare at the ceiling in despair – so by the end of the show I was exhausted.

It was a tough weekend for a show. We were competing with the San Francisco Cactus and Succulent Society show, as well as the San Jose Orchid Exposition. In spite of that we had a very nice turnout from members of the public. However the show itself was a bit less packed with entries than we'd have liked. Sundews and pings were well-represented, as were Sarracenia. The Nepenthes entries were a bit more sparse than usual, but still contained some excellent plants. However there were zero entries in the "Other Pitcher" category, only 1 for the aquatics, 2 for Art, and just 3 in "Terrarium/Dish Garden."

We're not sure why so few plants were submitted as compared to last year, but increasing show participation is going to be a major goal for the coming year in the BACPS. Now, without further ado, the entries.

Art

First: Heliamphora nutans, pontillist drawing, Sam Stafford.

Second: Venus flytrap, metal sculpture, Benjamin Bailey.

Terrarium/Dish Garden

First: Pygmy Garden, Devon Peterson. Also Third in Show.

Second: Dish Garden featuring Pinguicula sp. Huahuapan, Stephen Davis.

Check out that amazing flower! That's a new ping to add to my want list.

Third: D. adelae, D. scorpioides, D. burmannii, Ben Raymond.

Butterwort (Pinguicula)

First: Pinguicula 'Pirouette', Doris Quick.

Second: Pinguicula 'Weser', Stephen Davis.

Third: Pinguicula gigantea, Brian Lipinski.

Sundew (Drosera, Byblis, Roridula)

First: Drosera falconeri, Apache Rose. Also First in Show.

Second: Drosera ordensis, Apache Rose.

Third: Drosera ultramafica × spatulata, Devon Peterson.

American Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia)

First: Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora, Doris Quick.

Second: Sarracenia alata "black" × flava "red", Stephen Davis.

Third: Sarracenia hybrid, Larry Logoteta.

Tropical Pitcher Plant (Nepenthes)

First: Nepenthes spectabilis, Apache Rose. Also Second in Show and winner of the Geoff Wong Award for Horticultural Excellence.

This was really a flawlessly-grown and wonderfully-presented plant. Apache really knows how to grow 'em.

Second: Nepenthes talangensis × robcantleyi, Josh Brown.

Third: Nepenthes bongso, Elizabeth Sampson.

Aquatic

First: Utricularia graminifolia, Devon Peterson.

I was sort of bummed there weren't more aquatic entries, since I think this guy would have shown well against some competition. Oh well.


Venus Flytrap

First: Dionaea 'B-52', Benjamin Bailey.

 
Second: Dionaea 'B-52' × 'Ginormous', Larry Logoteta.

Third: Dionaea 'Red Dragon', Anne Smith.

Best in Show

I've gotta say, the real hero of the show was Apache Rose. Anyone who's active in carnivorous plant groups on Facebook knows Apache, and she really brought some killers. She also credited me with helping her get that D. falconeri so strikingly red – she raised her plant right up near the lights in the last two weeks to color it up, as I had done with my Drosera burmannii last year. It was well done!

First in Show was Drosera falconeri by Apache Rose, Second in Show was Nepenthes spectabilis by Apache Rose, and Third in Show was my own humble pygmy garden.

It was a fun show. Still, there were 5 ribbons not awarded due to lack of entries. Any SF Bay Area growers reading this post: start preparing your plants for next year.

Some great-looking sundews

The BACPS Annual Show and Sale was yesterday, and it was lots of fun. I'm gonna make a big post about the juried show, but that's going to take a lot of work editing pictures and whatnot. In the meantime here's a few plants that you might appreciate.

This Drosera binata was discovered while I was helping repot some plants over at Predatory Plants in advance of the show.

Sproing!

That spring-looking thing at the bottom is the root ball. The plant had actually pushed itself out of its 1-inch plug, which is how Josh noticed it. Apparently this is descended from a D. binata he received for free at the first BACPS meeting he attended after coming back to the Bay after college. That plant apparently grew a huge root ball over the next couple years and then when he went into business selling plants he unpotted it and made a whole bunch of cuttings. That one little freebie has spawned thousands of D. binata plants for him to sell. What a great clone!

Speaking of spawning new plants, my Drosera capillaris "Albino" is flowering for the first time in a long time.

I've been waiting for another flower on this guy.

You'll noticed I used the descriptor "Albino" instead of the location "Alabama." There's a story there, but I'm not quite ready to tell it yet. Still doing more research. Definitely looking forward to getting some more seed from this guy though.

My Drosera prolifera is doing as well as I've ever seen it doing lately.

Lots of plants!

It's going through another bout of flowering, so there are lots of new plantlets. I'll have to either pot this up into a larger size or divide the pot pretty soon – I'm running out of spots to stick the plantlets into the moss.

On the pygmy front, this new pot of Drosera helodes is looking fantastic.

Perfect little sundews.

The thing I really like about this species is the contrast between the white tentacles and the red laminae, which turn into neat little circles. Great distribution in the pot too.

Finally, just to whet the appetite for the upcoming show post.

It was lots of fun, but I was tired by the end.

It was a good day!

Utricularia graminifolia flower and other cool stuff

Back at the beginning of March – 3 months ago – I first noticed a flower stalk forming on my Utricularia graminifolia. Yesterday it finally popped its first flower.

Neat little flower. Foliage is looking pretty good too.

So cute! U. graminifolia is considered one of the more fiddly terrestrial/semi-aquatic utrics. I grow mine in an undrained glass container about 18 inches from my lights. I let the water pretty much evaporate all the way before refilling almost to the top of the container (covering the plant entirely). I've heard of several people using this method to successfully grow U. graminifolia to flower. There are several more flower stalks coming up, which is exciting. One thing to note when using this method – when you first plant your plug of U. graminifolia there's nothing holding the peat together, so watering really stirs it all up. The peat settles after a day or so. Once the plant fills in the container watering isn't so much of an issue anymore.

 I've also got a flower coming up on my Drosera collinsiae (Fairyland, RSA).

Very nice rosette of leaves on this plant.

This is a really handsome plant that hasn't gotten much attention on the blog. It started to flower once before, but I clipped the stalk when I noticed aphids on it. Now we're flowering again and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one won't be similarly afflicted.

These next two photos I recently posted on my Instagram, but I decided to share them here too because not everyone has Instagram. First up, look at this wild picture of my Drosera burmannii (Hann River, Kimberley, Western Australia).

Dig that weird splotchy coloring.

I had let them go a while without being fed, which gave them a lovely, luminescent red color. Then, a couple days after a heavy feeding, I noticed that there was this mix of pale pink and deep red leaves as the new growth grew in. Super cool!

I also shared this photo of Drosera enodes, which I took as part of my project to improve the pygmy sundew pages on Wikipedia.

One of the loveliest pygmies, imo.

D. enodes forms this little dome composed almost entirely of dew, and it's really, really cute. I love my little pygmies.