Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 23:34:22 +0800 From: Peter Cole <carnivor@flytrap.demon.co.uk> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3560$foo@default> Subject: Re: The Savage Garden, page 221
"Christensen" <chrst@srv.net> writes:
>I read Cultivating Carnivorous Plants: The Savage Garden
>by Peter D'Amato. On page 221, he wrote this: "A newly
>discovered species found in Australia (unnamed at this
>writing) has relatively enormous bladders approaching a
>half inch in diameter."
>
>I wrote to Allen Lowrie about that. This is his reply:
>"Regarding Peter's report of a giant trapped Utric in
>Australia, I know nothing about it. The two with the
>largest traps are U. westonii (subgenus Polypompholyx) and
>U. arnhemica. Under favorable conditions the traps will
>grow 1.2cm or 1/2in long, as reported by P. Taylor. They
>were named in 1986."
I wouldn't include U.westonii in this - according to
TAYLOR, traps 3-4mm long. I certainly never saw
larger ones on the one occasion I managed to germinate
and grow the plant, (damned annual - never got any
seed from it and it died at the end of the year.)
The other obvious contender for largest in the genus
is U.humboldtii, but this is S.American, not Australian
(unless there's some weird burmanii/sessilifolia-like
distribution going on here :-)
But as TAYLOR says "U.arnhemica shares with U.humboldtii
the distinction of bearing the largest traps known in
the genus, but the very large ones (up to 1.2cm long)
are only produced when the plant is growing under the
most favourable conditions."
The line drawing at 1x scale is certainly a mouth-
watering sight, but I've never had a U.humboldtii
trap over ~6cm on my plant, and I've not grown
U.arnhemica (is it in cultivation? I've not seen it
on anyone's lists...)
If there is another sp. out there approaching these
dimensions, I'd love to hear about it. Peter's on the
list I think - care to comment?
Happy growing,
Peter
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