Contamination.

Jeffrey Michael Stein (steinjef@student.msu.edu)
Sun, 15 Jan 1995 17:06:08 -0500 (EST)

>
>
> Whenever I have put venus flytrap into sterile agar culture, I have
> had enormous problems getting sterile tissue. This has not been a
> problem with other non-carnivorous species. Is this just a passing
> observation of no import or could it be that the carnivorous species
> can utilize microflora for nutrition! Does anyone have any experience
> or feedback concerning this?
>
>

_Dionaea_ is the most commonly CP grown in vitro. It has been
succesfully grown for many years. There may just be a problem with your
sterilation technique. Do you start from tissue or from seeds? I've
never successfully sterilized the tissue without massive die-off. But
the seeds go quite well. I've never seen any documentation about
symbiotic, or non-symbiotic for that matter, relationships between CP
and microflora (fungii included). Do CP have mycrorrhizal fungii
symbiosis as other plants do? Sounds like a thesis topic.

JMS