> stratification for Genlisea!!!!!!! Perhaps this is why I
> have never been too lucky with these - obviously time to
> modify my approach! BTW G.lobata is alive and kicking in a
> few UK collections - I guess they must like the
> unpredictable UK weather. Ever tried GA3 on these anybody?
Wow! I can't believe you guys got G.lobata going! Actually, I
wonder how you guys got it at all. I can't remember right now if I was
corresponding with anybody from the UK back when I collected G.lobata in
the wild in 1993, so I don't know if I sent it to anybody in the UK or if
one of you got it from someone else who got it from me. Well, glad to
know this species is established in cultivation. One more Genlisea down,
but still several to go!
Talking about Genlisea, I just returned today from a trip to the
town of Grao Mogol in northern Minas Gerais state. This was my 4th time
there. It's really far away, but it's sure worth the trip! The most
interesting CPs there are D.villosa and G.violacea. Well actually, both
are actually very different and deserve to be separated as new species.
The local D.villosa-like plants have thick rosettes sitting on
top of columns formed by dead leaves and are surely the most beautiful
Drosera in Brazil. It will probably soon be published (not by myself) as
D.graomogolensis. The local G.violacea-like plants have larger leaves,
longer flower scapes, and larger flowers, not to mention that in the
wild they grow as perennials, and not as annuals like G.violacea.
CPs are very abundant in that area and other species I've seen
there are: D.communis, D.montana var.tomentosa, D.montana var.schwackei,
D.graminifolia, D.sp."Emas" (a new species I've been finding all over
sub-amazonian Brazil), G.aurea, G.repens, G.pygmaea, G.filiformis,
U.tricolor, U.amethystina "white fl" (perennial), U.amethystina "purple
fl." (annual), U.neottioides, U.nana, U.subulata, U.trichophylla, and
U.purpureocaerulea. A few of these, mostly the annuals, were not seen on
this trip since at the moment we're at the end of the dry season.
I went with my friends Fabio (who also lives here in Sao Paulo),
Dennis (who lives in Londrina, Parana state), and Gert Hoogenstrijd from
Holland, who was here visiting. I think they agreed that all the CPs
found compensated for the long trip to Grao Mogol. I think Gert was most
amazed with the D.graminifolia growing in very dry habitats, mostly in the
cracks between the layers of sandstone.
We arrived early this morning and Gert has already left for Holland,
after 6 months working + travelling around C+S America. If any of you
Dutch CPers know him, tell him he forgot his address book in my garage
and that I'll mail it to his Groeningen address tomorrow. Phone him at
his parents' place, I think that's where he'll be. And he'll probably be
very frustrated, not knowing where he left the thing!
Fernando Rivadavia
Sao Paulo, Brazil