Drosophyllum site, Portugal

[Astroman]

Dear All,

Its a pleasure to share these photos with you, taken in july, 2009.

This site can be found in the southern part of Portugal (Algarve). If one of you is going there, i can give the exact locality for you to observ them in nature. Its pretty sure that there are other sites more to the north, but i didnt have the chance to find them yet. I hope in this year i will be more lucky

 

[adnedarn]

Wow, nice find! Amazing to have been able to visit there Was that 2 plants side by side, or one plant with 2 growth points?
Thanks for sharing!
Andrew

 

[Astroman]

It was one with 2 growth points, but near to them i counted more than 10 individuals, but the dry season made its effect as you can see...

 

[adnedarn]

How close would you say you seen them growing next to each other? Some believe that they restrict each others growth... Did you notice onces close to one another looked any worse than one that was off by itself?

Andrew

 

[Astroman]

As far as i know their populations are very isolated, like this (it was only a 20m circle), and further there was no more plants.
Sorry, but what would you like to express with your 2nd question, its not fully clear to me

 

[adnedarn]

Well, were there any plants that were growing very close to each other (within 15-30cm)? If not, what would you say the closest you saw was? and if so, did those plants look any worse than plants that were not near others?
Andrew

 

[Astroman]

ok, i finally got your idea I guess you are asking this, because their roots are educting a kind of chemical substance, which is making the other plants disturbed in growing.

Well, i didnt experience any difference between them, but all of them seemed a bit less in height which i had imagined before. Maybe its because they didnt get enough direct sunlight, or the media was not as well componated as it should be , or simply they could not catch sufficent insects.
Normally they are 30-50 cm tall, arent they?

 

[adnedarn]

Yes, that is what I was asking. The plants in your pictures do look rather small, but hey- whatever they went through they survived to flower at least. thanks for the info, and again for the pics!
Any plans to make it back out there?

Andrew

 

[Astroman]

Now im intending to go to a fieldtrip with a professor, who knows some sites, so im gonna show you if i find something there

 

[mass]

They don't look like they're doing so well.. is that normal?

 

[Jeremiah Harris]

Wow Astroman thanks so much for posting those photos. From those photos it looks like they are growing in a little shade then most wild Drosophyllum photos that I have seen, was that the case or just the time of day they were taken?

For me they all seem to grow almost the exact same whether I grow 1 or 5 in a pot....

I think one of the problem is Drosophyllum is not a long lived plant. Not matter what I do they only seem to live for 3-4 years. THe only way that seem to make it through flowering is if I keep them very dry and make sure they have plenty to eat. If for some reason they flower when insects are not readily available I spray the foliage with a seaweed based fertilizer every 3 days.

-Jeremiah-

 

[mass]

I think one of the problem is Drosophyllum is not a long lived plant.

-Jeremiah-

wow.. nice pics Jeremiah! Hows that new greenhouse doing?

 

[Astroman]

Well, its not the part of the topic, but recently i was trying to germinate DL seeds. As you can see, one of them is showing the first signs. I was doing the scarification on them with sandpaper. You can see the little white part after i erased the hard seed coat.

I could arrange rock wool, so i put the seed on the top of that. It absorbs very well the water, so the surrounded environment is wet enough for the seed. I did that, because i heared that it can be crucial, if i am not handling the seed with care, after germination. (At this moment, all of them are in a little pot, so i move them to their final pot after i see them germinating, and with this i only have to move this little rockwool cube, so the seed wont have any damage i guess )

When i will have news i will let you know!

Happy Growing!