>>_N.mirabilis_ is the only species I have seen (photos of) growing in
>>standing water, almost as an emergent. But I have never seen this genus
>>in the wild so I don't know much about how they really occur.
>"Nepenthes of Mount Kinabalu" has a B/W picture of "aquatic" N. mirabilis -
>rather remarkable. I always cringe when I see Nepenthes sitting in trays of
This is the very picture I was thinking about.
>And I thought you already accepted the two (my rumination/botanical dogma)
>to be the same...8-)
>1. Which conditions should rumination fulfill to be called a dogma?
>2. Which conditions should a dogma fulfill to be accepted?
I think that to be dogma, the originator of the dogma must either...
A)be dead
B)have tenure
C)both of the above (with those that have tenure, whether they are actually
dead is a subtle matter and not always immediately apparent. I can think
of several members on my thesis committee that have uncertain status in this
respect)
>Subject: Re: Sarracenia flowering
>Barry:
>works, but then again it takes a year to see how well it turned out. - The
>things sometimes seem to self on me while my back is turned. How do you avoid
>selfing or unwanted crosses?
Tom, I don't seem to have the selfing problems that you do. I carefully mark
each flower I self or cross with a few loops of wire around the peduncle, and
record the cross in my notebook. Occasionally I overlook a flower and so
I don't pollinate it. This season I missed seven flowers and of all these
flowers only one produced any seed, and only about 4 seeds at that.
(Usually I only overlook a flower or two---the reason I missed so many this
year is I left for a long trip before the flowering season ended.) Anyway,
this is evidence that selfings and crosses do not occur to any significant
degree by causes such as wind or vibrations (from my CP-in-the-desert life
support systems). I think that if you are getting unexpected selfings, it
is either because you are brushing pollen against the stigma surfaces
when you collect it, or you have some insects working your plants. For
the first possibility, be careful in your technique (if I ever suspected I
may have just gotten pollen on a stigma accidentally, I'd remove that portion
of the style). If you have insect problems, you will have to make some mesh
bags for the flowers to keep the arthropods at bay.
When I was discussing _Sarracenia_ pollination with my botanist brother,
he made some comments I think about often.... Since there are such a long
distances from stigmatic surfaces to the ovaries, the pollen has to germinate
and grow a long distance before fertilization can occur. He wondered about
what sort of competitive environment the pollen grains may function within.
Is is possible the parent plant could produce barriers to resist self
pollination by inhibiting the ability of its own pollen to grow to the
ovary somehow? Very interesting line of inquiry, and fun to think about.***
>For those of you who are interested, I found Superthrive at Pay Less (a
Last night I went rummaging around in the various chemicals my wife and
I sometimes heap on our poor plants, and I found some of that Superthrive!
Apparently the missus has used it in the past. She was not too amazed by
it, although she didn't do any controlled tests.
B
***If any of the experimentally inclined scientists/botanists on this list
pursue this and publish, just include a throwaway line of "We wish to thank
the illustrious brothers K. Rice and B. Meyers-Rice for their insightful
comments which inspired this project." :)