Welcome back. Bryce is exceptionally pretty. I'm a bit more keen on
Zion, though. The drive between them is spectacular. Bridgett and I
explored several parks through there a year or so ago (Bryce, Zion,
Great Basin,etc) and we were so overdosed on natural wonders and vistas
that when we drove back to Flagstaff we passed the entrance to the
Grand Canyon, north rim, and said "Oh let's not go in---it's just the
Canyon".
>Don't worry Barry, I have it on good authority from a Green Beret
>in Mesa that only the Bark Scorpions, which I think are yellow
>bodied ones, are really deadly. These guys have rather long
Rob: Yeah, much like chile peppers, the smaller the beast the
nastier the sting (at least around here). Tiny bark scorpions are the
worst, then stripe-tails. The largest but least nasty are the truly
horrifyingly large woolly scorpions. You could almost saddle these up
for a spin through the cacti at dusk!
Jan: you didn't happen to send some of _U.nana_ to Rob Maharajh, did you?
I got my plant from him, but he is peculiarly missing from email
and snail-mail communications (I suspect a vacation) and so hasn't
told me about this plant. It is unfortunately fairly unimpressive
as _Utricularia_ go. Are your plants producing seed? Did you self them?
I have not watched the detailed behaviour of this plant through fruiting.
My impression is that the flowers are held pre-anthesis as shown by
TAYLOR, but then become erect at flowering. What happens afterward I
haven't been able to observe because my plants haven't produced seed
and so capsules are not formed.
This same problem has been thwarting my efforts to id my putative
_G.violacea_, which requires fruit production for a complete diagnosis.
Unlike my _G.hispidula_, this plant is not producing seed even by selfing.
>Phil,
>From your description it becomes perfectly clear you have _Nepenthes_.
Heh heh heh. Something I'm having problems with that no one else is, are
the dimensions quoted. Phil, you said the leaves are just several mm
in various dimensions. That's tiny! My smallest mature _Nepenthes_ is
_N. gracilis_ and while its leaves are perhaps 1 cm in width, they are
several cm long. It sounds to me like you have a seedling plant, and it
may take a few years before you start getting a mature set of pitchers
which will give you some useful, although not conclusive, information.
Rob Allen reminded me of something. There is an old horror movie called
"Day of the Trifids" based on the premise that some nasty extraterrestrial
plants take over the world. Not to be an alarmist, but these plants took
over JUST AFTER AN INTENSE METEOR STORM. Now, I happen to be astronomer
by day, horticulturist by night (maybe I should reverse that), so I am
uniquely well placed to make some careful warnings. Remember also that
fiction and myth are often based on a germ of fact---so while we might
not face a threat from extraterrestrial plants (which are subtly different
from epiphytic plants), let us cautiously watch what effects the storm
will have on our CP.
B