Strange behaviour of Drosophyllum lusitanicum

Manfred Buerzele (buerzele@hlhp1.physik.uni-ulm.de)
Wed, 9 Aug 95 19:18:20 MESZ

Hi all,

I have two quite big Drosophyllum plants, that I have grown from seeds
in May last year.
These one year old plants are now at least 25 cm tall and have a lot of
(really sweet smelling) leaves.
I expected them to flower this year, but unfortunately they don't.

In mid-June this year I sowed two other grains of Drosophyllum.
Both sprouted and are growing well also.
But these younger plants are of course much smaller, about 10 cm long
and have only few leaves.

Now the strange thing: These little plants are flowering already!
Each of the two young plants shows a single yellow flower.

Each book that I read about Drosophyllum states that they usually bloom
from the second year on.

Any explanations for this strange phenomenon?
Or is this normal behaviour and only I consider this strange? ;-)

All four plants are potted in the same substrat and they stand side by side
at the same place under the same light and temperature conditions.

Cheers,
Manfred.