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Pinguicula (Pachuca) Observation

Thought I'd share an interesting development. The mother plant has bloomed continuously for the past few months. While taking a leaf pulling, my clumsy fingers snapped off a flower at the base, right where it attached to the plant. I was looking to preserve the flower for a bit longer, so I stuck the base of it into the clear plastic saucer I'm using under another pot. I've kept the saucer topped off with distilled water since sticking the stem into it, with the flower and about two inches of stem above the water. The interesting part is that this plant will reproduce from flower pullings.... and is self-fertile. Pics below:

Sprout at the base of the flower stem. Looks like twins!
crop1.jpg


Seed pod:
crop2.jpg
 
I've had this cultivar for over a year and it hasn't done much for me, other than produce leaves. What are your growing conditions?

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Vegetative apomixis, a wonderful thing when it happens, too bad it doesn't happen more often.
 
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In the photo below, the plant in the upper left corner is the only one in this group of adult, blooming-size plants that wasn't fertilized with dried, powdered insects, the week before this photo was taken:

P_%28Pachuca%29_20Nov07.jpg
 
I got this plant labeled P. pachuea and it flowers nonstop. I wonder if it could be the same the plant as P. sp. pachuca.

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Curious, though not very surprising, there are more than one Pinguicula collected near or at a place called "Pachuca" and not otherwise identified. Those I've seen photos of seem to have flowers that appear to be somewhat similar, though not identical. The following photo's are of the clone I have in my collection, I only have one clone with the identity of Pinguicula (Pachuca). Comparing your plant with mine, I see some variation, though the flowers are quite similar.

p_Pachuca_comp_ab.jpg
 
Yes the flower structure is quite similar but leaf formation is close except for the fact that my leafs are more wavy. I probably just have a different clone.
 
Yes, though the flowers of my clone are marked similarly and the color appears close, mine always have these narrower corolla lobes (petals) than yours appears to have, my clone of this type has never produced those wide and wavy leaves that yours has.
 
Jim:

It's growing about 20 inches below 8 T8 fluorescent bulbs. They're 4ft long, half 4100K and half 6500K. Temps were in the high 70s all summer, and have dropped into the low 60s recently. I've kept the plant evenly moist so far, but I'm trying to shift it to winter mode, so I'm trailing off the waterings. I've got a bunch of leaf pullings which are just starting to sprout, and one that's just coloring up. I haven't had much luck at all with Mexipings in general, and esp. young plants. So I'm very excited to find a plant which grow well in my conditions.

P. laueana and laueana x emarginata are also doing well, but most other plants I've tried have either done poorly or croaked. Your plant looks healthy, but might be looking for more light?
 
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JC:

Your last photo looks exactly like the plant I have. The leaf coloring is spot on, and the flowers are very similar, though I can't get the color to come out well in photos (mine are a bit more purple than yours). Mine's missing a bunch of leaves from a repot, and is just starting to spring back.
 
  • #11
Here is the same tray (from my earlier post in this same thread) of nine plants on 18Dec07. Most of the flowers have been damaged because they grew up into the lights, before I realized it and could move them where they had more headroom. Fortunately if I either pollinate these for seed or just trim them off, there are many more buds coming along for another crop of blooms.

You can also see that they are in strong competition for the limited amount of space for their leaves.

P_%28Pachuca%29_18Dec07_001.jpg


When you compare the plants above with a photo of the same clone in the following photo, you can see that my cultivation technique has improved somewhat.

p_Pachuca_comp_ab.jpg
 
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