Re: bletia/bletilla

Barry Meyers-Rice (barry@as.arizona.edu)
Mon, 19 Jul 93 10:23:48 MST

>If your plant looks like _P.agnata_ (upper and lower corolla
>lips not very different, corolla lobes with rounded apex, spur
>very short, leaves with margins not turned up), *please, please*
>call it _P.agnata_!

Jan, I love it when you beg! :)

Incidentally Jan, I checked my putative _P.kondoi_ that is flowering
(originally from Don B.) and noted the peduncle is covered with many
glandular hairs, and the calyx lobes are not truncate but rather pointed
(probably acute). There is no obvious difference between upper/lower
petals. The corolla is very pale lavender or white, with purplish
striations on the petals. The flower looks like the one shown in Kondo's
book (p. 144) in profile.

Oh, my _U. simulans_ is going to flower! :) Already I can see the
fimbriate scales, so I know this is a species new to my collection.

I've gotten a few questions about whether I've collected any plants
while out in the southeast. The answer is, not really. I borrowed a
plant press from the university herbarium and made some collections of
_Utricularia_ for them. Of course, those are all dead plants! The
rest of the time I just spent photographing. I must admit it was very
tempting to dig stuff up but it is ultimately a selfish and inappropriate
act. I did collect some seed, however. Also one of my relatives is in a
small 6-person hunting club and owns some land where I felt taking a few
plants was not a problem.

It is true that collecting is perfectly fine in an area being developed,
but while I saw realty signs I do not know which parcels will soon be
houses, and which will stay wild for many years to come.

Hey you bug-people... Do you know the identity of a 2 cm long brine
shrimp I saw swimming about in some streamside puddles in Arizona near
the Mexico border (near Nogales). These were free swimming arthropods,
and not at all like various crawling insect nymphs. I saw these this
weekend in a puddle filled with other critters (tadpoles, arthropods,
rare Sonoran Chubs) on a hike.

Er, I was on the hike, not the critters.

B