Nepenthesis
Formerly known as Pineapple
Recently I purchased a tub of live sphagnum. I pulled out a few pieces to start a culture today. Then, I filled the containers the cultures would be in with dried sphagnum I had purchased and drenched in a container. However, when I dug through it to get the softer, wetter pieces from the bottom, I found a 4" strand of live, green sphagnum. Obviously was not just algae, there was TONS of algae growing on top of the culture. It was much darker. This strand was light green, identical to my live sphagnum in the tub I purchased. But this could have been a mix up, it could have just fallen in, right? Then I come across living RED sphagnum! And yellow too!
On the left is the dead sphagnum, next to it is yellow, next to that is red, and then the green...
As I had mentioned, they were in a container flooded with water in the bottom of the heap of sphagnum. I found the red about half way between the wet top and the flooded bottom, same with the green and yellow. So they were with little light. However, the container had originally had a lid on it (maybe for two or three weeks) prior to adding shade cloth, so it had gotten 100+ degrees in there in full sun. It was 95F in the greenhouse at times. When I got shade cloth, I removed the lid from the container.
What they were in...
And the funny thing is, this is what people say is the absolutely lowest grade of sphagnum... Mosser lee. Obviously these didn't come back from spores, but they came back to life from being dry somehow. How does this happen? Is sphagnum known for this?
I put the three pieces (yellow, red and green) into their own culture in my greenhouse which will be kept very wet. I also started three other cultures with live sphagnum from the tub of live sphag I bought a bit ago. I'll post pictures if I get growth on these red, yellow and green ones I found living. Pretty weird.
Thoughts?
On the left is the dead sphagnum, next to it is yellow, next to that is red, and then the green...
As I had mentioned, they were in a container flooded with water in the bottom of the heap of sphagnum. I found the red about half way between the wet top and the flooded bottom, same with the green and yellow. So they were with little light. However, the container had originally had a lid on it (maybe for two or three weeks) prior to adding shade cloth, so it had gotten 100+ degrees in there in full sun. It was 95F in the greenhouse at times. When I got shade cloth, I removed the lid from the container.
What they were in...
And the funny thing is, this is what people say is the absolutely lowest grade of sphagnum... Mosser lee. Obviously these didn't come back from spores, but they came back to life from being dry somehow. How does this happen? Is sphagnum known for this?
I put the three pieces (yellow, red and green) into their own culture in my greenhouse which will be kept very wet. I also started three other cultures with live sphagnum from the tub of live sphag I bought a bit ago. I'll post pictures if I get growth on these red, yellow and green ones I found living. Pretty weird.
Thoughts?