Re: S. purpurea purpurea stolonifera

From: L235@aol.com
Date: Thu Nov 27 1997 - 17:13:29 PST


Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 20:13:29 -0500 (EST)
From: L235@aol.com
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg4527$foo@default>
Subject: Re:  S. purpurea purpurea stolonifera

Wim Leys writes:

>About seven years ago I have received and sown S. purpurea purpurea
>stolonifera seeds from the UK CPS.

As far as I can find, Don Schnell discounted the variety designation
stolonifera for S. purpurea in his 1979 article "A Critical Review of
Published Variants of Sarracenia purpurea L." in Castanea (vol 44, no. 1),
the journal of the Southern Appalachian Botanical Club, West Virginia, USA.
 He wrote that plants observed in the wild with elongated, branching stolons
were the result of habitat factors, not genetics.

Now for my own observations, for what they're worth. I've seen S. purpurea
growing in floating sphagnum mats in New Jersey, USA with elongated, vertical
rhizomes and much elongated petioles. Plants from the same vicinity that I
have seen in cultivation are certainly shorter, although I have observed a
continued, albeit slight elongation of the rhizome than in other S. purpureas
I have seen.

The purpose of this elongation? To keep the growing point, and the pitchers,
well clear of the fast-growing sphagnum in these bogs, which would rapidly
overgrow the plant otherwise, I believe.

Jay Lechtman (L235@aol.com)
"People who live in glass houses should grow CP."



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