News from my students work

[arie]

I have few students that their final work at Biology was about growing Drosera capensis under different conditions. Few were grow with tap water compare to distilled water.the plants with tap water grown a bit smaller but the most important thing was that they had a salt secretion from the leaves you really can see the salts at the upper side of the leaves.
here are few photos so you can notice it

Arie

 

[joseph]

hmmm....Interesting, so do you think they could survive on hard water?

joe

 

[arie]

seems so if the humidity and light are good the plants grow quite nicely.
Arie

 

[D muscipula]

Woah, that's cool. I know of a few plants adapted for the salt flats that can do that, but didn't expect it in a CP.

 

[NickHubbell]

I wonder if the plant has this adaption to allow it to grow in salty soils. Could it be possible that the plant tries to save its roots by drawing up the harmfull salts and then allowing the salt deposits on the leaves to be washed away by rain? I know this would put the salts back in the soil, but some of it maybe washed away from the plant.

Just a silly hypothesis.

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

Hmmmm. More salts might wash away on the surface of the soil than down below the surface where the flow would be slower. Might be an adaptation that actually works to make soil less salty and better suited to their needs.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Very interesting. So did ALL the capensis grown with tap water have the deposits? None of the ones watered with pure water had it? Were the plants watered from above? And were the deposits tested in any way to determine the chemical make up?

Sorry for all the questions...I am just curious.

Suzanne

 

[arie]

Hi Suzanne
all the plants were water in tray water system.
part on tap water and part on distiled water.
only the ones on tap water has the salts deposits.
no test was made for the salts I just try to compare them to kettle stone and they taste and look nearly the same even had more salt taste.
Arie