Petiolaris Complex & Dormancy

[jimscott]

I'm a little confused as to why this complex of sundews goes through a dormancy when it is one of most tropical of cp's, all year round. Are they equatorial? Why would they even need a dormancy?

 

[Pyro]

Dormancy does not always denote cold weather. While the region the petios originate from is tropical it has distinct seasons in as much as "wet" and "dry" are seasons.

Petios actively grow during the warmer wetter months and then cease growth and go dormant during the cooler drier months. There is a temperature variance but it is more the radical change in moisture that accounts for their dormancy.

 

[jimscott]

I understand. My paradoxa still has a green, healthy looking crown and new leaves are being produced. Too soon for them to have opened up and see dew. Is that still within the realm of dormancy or more the result of a shock, followed by recovery?

 

[Pyro]

Could be either. Just keep an eye on it and go as it tells you to. This plant is pretty forgiving so I would not stress much

 

[jimscott]

September look:

Early November look:

No picture right now, but it has less of a fist because the new leaves are lowering themselves, but they haven't opened up yet. All the old leaves are dewless.

 

[Finch]

This phenomena happens to trees too- Tropical dry forests are often deciduous during the dry parts of the year. We think of tropicals as all evergreen but that is far from the case...

... as i have never grown these plants thats all i can say...

 

[jimscott]

Do they need a dormancy? Should we go out of our way to provide one, as we do for VFT's and American pitcher plants?

 

[RL7836]

Do they need a dormancy? Should we go out of our way to provide one, as we do for VFT's and American pitcher plants?

Jim,
You will find some experienced growers on both sides of this issue.

If you try to keep them in constant growth mode, at some point they may just decide to go dormant - independent of your wishes / actions / intentions. When they go dormant, there is a reasonably high incidence of death syndrome.

If you grow them with defined seasons, you have more control over the dormancy and since you do it with all of your plants, there is a greater likelihood of having synchronized flowering. As with Neps, this is a real issue for producing species pollinations (& other targeted crosses).

iirc, Pyro, Petiolaris Sean, SundewMatt, Forbes, Michael Lu & Chuck Lyon grow w/o seasons (constant growth mode) and Maurizio & Andreas Fleischmann grow w/ seasons (my apologies to the growers I've left out).

I'd love to see some of our south Florida growers (or maybe north of that) do an outdoor mini-bog with several from this group....

 

[jimscott]

I hear ya. I struggle with what to do when they go dormant. I can't really discern dormancy and death. From what I percieve it seems best to have seasonality, as this is what happens in nature. Flowering won't do me any good right now, with one D. kennealyi and one D. lanata. Perhaps they will do as my old D. paradoxa did and keep reproduce asexually. I'll probably have to tweak the heater a bit as well, right?