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Byblis dewdrops photos - the actual version

Cindy

Cindy

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For the past 10 months, I had the good fortune of being able to grow and flower 2-7 plants of each of the seven tropical Byblis species.

At first, I noticed that there seemed to be some variation between each species in terms of the how their leaves looked in very bright light. But being an apartment CP grower with no interest in taxonomy, I soon went back to pure appreciation of these beautiful plants glistening in the tropical afternoon sun.

However, during one conversation with Greg Allen about these plants, he mentioned that he too noticed how different the tentacles and dew drops looked for different species. That's it! I couldn't quite pinpoint what was different but he hit the nail on the head!

Upon taking a closer look at my own plants and by going through as many photos of other growers as I can, I photographed the leaves of each species, hoping to capture the following features.
1. distribution of tentacles (number of tentacles per unit length)
2. length of tentacles (compared to thickness of leaf)
3. size of dew drops (with respect to the length of tentacles)

The photographs were taken from flowering adult plants. They are not representative of all leaves of all species and forms.

Some of the features observed (pls click on species name to go to respective albums).
B. guehoi (AL13) and B. guehoi (RES) – most dense in terms of distribution of tentacles, tentacles of varying lengths (rather extreme, very short and very long)
B. aquatica (AL1) – tentacles distribution rather sparse, tentacles of similar lengths and the largest dew drops with respect to length of tentacles
B. rorida (AL20) and B. rorida (AL21) – distribution of tentacles more dense than B. aquatica, large dew drops, tentacles of 2-3 lengths but not too different
B. filifolia (AL7) and B. filifolia (Pago giant, GA) – tentacles of rather similar lengths, dew drops size varies between forms but never as large as rorida
B. liniflora (AL18) – tentacles of varied lengths (like B. guehoi) but not as many tentacles per unit length, dew drop size is similar to B. filifolia

Other photos
B. sp. Pilbara (AL22) - tentacles distribution, density and dew drop size are significantly different from other species
B. guehoi x 'Goliath' - somewhat in-between the different species?

Interestingly...
Most species - tentacles close to the stem tend to be of more similar lengths than those further away; very obvious for B. guehoi.
There is variation between the 3 features observed on the leaf and the pedicel! And between a seedling, a young plant and a flowering plant! Those will be next year's projects...if I can "immunise" myself to Byblis pollen, having developed an allergy to it due to last year's eagerness to manually-pollinate every flower I see. :crazy:

In summary
Perhaps leaf features could be used in conjunction with flower features for distinguishing between species? I'll leave that to the experts. Meanwhile, let me go back to enjoying the remaining of the annual species at my balcony in the setting sun...before they too disappear for the year...

Cheers!
 
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Hi peeps,

It's been two years and I am back to growing all the tropical species of Byblis again! Currently, B. liniflora and B. guehoi have got flower buds, with B. aquatica at less than 1" tall. Yes, that is one inch and not one foot. It is really s....l........o.....w........ compared to the rest although they all germinated within the same 1-2 weeks. There are also two B. rorida plants which look significantly different.

So for those interested in the sticky bits and tentacles, please sit back and enjoy the first round of photos. Do compare and contrast too with the photos I posted two years ago as the B. liniflora, B. guehoi and B. filifolia are of new location data. B. rorida and B. "Pilbara" have the same location data but they are directly from the source and not seeds from my own crosses.

Byblis stems

Byblis middle of leaves

Byblis leaf ends
 
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I like the tentacle length variation on Byblis guehoi the most, especially for the plants in your most recent post. It makes the tentacles look more sparse as opposed to something like liniflora. How long have your current plants been growing? I had some Byblis liniflora randomly appear in one of my pots a few weeks ago and my plants are all less than an inch tall.
 
Hi Tanukimo,

The seeds germinated between beginning and end of April, so that's 2-3 months.

Here's a pic of the plants. From left to right: B. "Pilbara", B. rorida, B. liniflora, B. guehoi and B. filifolia
 
'Very cool seeing the Byblis species compared, Cindy! I love them all but I intend to try growing B. guehoi one of these days. Is B. filifolia generally the largest of the group or is that more a matter of age?
 
Hi Mark,

The filifolia in the pic above is about 1-2 weeks older than the guehoi. But from what I observed, B. filifolia generally does seem to be the tallest and the largest from leaf tip to leaf. However, when B. guehoi branches, it would be the widest across the whole plant.
 
All the species are now flowering (except Mr Aquatica) and the following are the albums for each of them. I'll continue to upload photos until each species set seeds, so do pop by and check them out from time to time.

If I do try and hybridise them (having survived getting species seeds with the help of nasal filters for pollen allergies:-(...), I'll update the outcomes in a separate thread.

Byblis sp. Pilbara

Byblis filifolia (F8)

Byblis guehoi (G14)

Byblis liniflora (L18)

Byblis rorida (R20)

Byblis rorida (R21)
 
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BUMP!

Here are the plants at the moment. All of them are flowering except one rorida and the test-your-patience aquatica (in a separate thread).

From left to right: B. "Pilbara" (now B. pilbarana), B. rorida, B. liniflora, B. filifolia and B. guehoi (now the tallest species)
 
  • #10
LOL! I'll stick with B. liniflora, even if it's a pygmy compared with B. filifolia and B. guehoi.
 
  • #11
Maybe I'll give these another go. I still a tiny amount of the F2 generation of the hybids. The last attempt was a dude as the plants never got any bigger than B. liniflora.
 
  • #12
BUMP!

Here are the plants now. All of them have formed seeds except B. aquatica. The tallest B. guehoi plants were going downhill so I took cuttings.

From left to right: B. liniflora, B. rorida, B. pilbarana, B, guehoi+B. filifolia and B. filifolia



The flowers from the top. :-O
 
  • #13
Very interesting; I wonder if B. filifolia grows upright or with a more ground-scrambling habit in the wild.

Have you grown B. lamellata or gigantea?
 
  • #14
Filifolia grows mainly upright for me...only needed to prop it up much later as the stem is pretty thick. Guehoi too but since it branches, it tends to fall over more often.

I have grown both gigantea and lamellata. But never taller than several inches before they die from rot. My conditions are too hot and humid for the temperate species.
 
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