Dionea variations

From: Matt (drake@erols.com)
Date: Fri Sep 12 1997 - 06:59:41 PDT


Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 13:59:41 +0000
From: Matt <drake@erols.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg3515$foo@default>
Subject: Dionea variations

Before I begin this hopefully informative posting, let me apologize in
advance for posting 3 times in one day :)

     Supposedly there is one species of Dionea, and that is Dionea
Muscipula. Then there are what I suppose fall into the category of
clonal variations; "Royal Red", all green clone, etc.
     I ordered some seeds from the ICPS seedbank, including some
Dionea Muscipula seeds. They were very small seeds, and when one of
my VFTs flowered and I pollinated it, the seeds that it produced were
similar in size. Then I come across some VFTs on the bottom of a
shelf in the large glass greenhouse of a nursery/gardening center.
First of all let me say that these plants appeared neglected, from
their positioning out of direct sunlight to the unhealthy look of some
of the plants.
     One thing I noticed, however, was the very long (about 10"-12"),
browning flower stalks and seed pods on the plants. On the same note,
I have noticed differences between VFTs, namely two: some VFTs have
many short leaves close together, while others have fewer leaves that
are longer and reach out (usually upwards and tall) from the plant.
     These plants with the long flower stalks were the kind with the
longer leaves. Then I decided to run the seeds pods in the fingers
and see if they had seeds in them. Keeping an eye out for roving
employees, I rubbed some of the seedpods between my fingers and was
surprised at what I found. LARGE Dionea Muscipula seeds.
     Large in comparison to what I had seen in the past. The seeds
that I had ordered and harvested from my VFT that flowered were about
.3-.5mm in diameter (a few of the ones from my VFT may have reached
1mm in diameter). The LARGE seeds that I got from the VFTs in the
nursery were an astonishing 1mm-1.5mm in diameter and 2mm-2.5mm in
length. If looking at the estimated measurements of the seeds doesn't
help you picture the drastic difference, then here is a more visual
description; the .3mm-.5mm diameter seeds look like tiny specks of
dirt that you basically need to spread on top of the soil fairly
randomly, while the seeds that are 1mm-1.5mm in diameter and 2mm-2.5mm
in length (about 4 times or even more the size of the smaller seeds)
are easily identifiable as seeds and can be sown one by one. They
were shaped very seed-like and shiny black.
     I took most of the seed pods off the plants and then returned a
day or two later to get the rest. I was able to get maybe 30 seeds
(can't even remember cause I planted them already). This difference
in seed size suggests some difference between plants other than simple
clonal differences, and not being a student of plant biology I don't
know exactly what the difference between these two major kinds of
Dionea are; probably not special difference, but probably not mere
clonal either, because of the somewhat drastic difference.
     Then again, maybe the answer is simple and by posting this i will
lose all credibility as a serious CP collector....:/



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