Drosera murfetii

[DJ57]

Last Saturday I was gifted a D. murfetii, a new species from Tasmania. Being so new to cultivation there is not much I can find about caring for it, although they do grow alongside D. arcturi in the wild so I will follow grow guides for them. Wish me luck. Has anyone here had any experience with D. murfetii?

[/url]Drosera murfetii, New species 2014 by Djoni C, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]D. murfetii by Djoni C, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[adnedarn]

Nice! Never heard of it, kinda looks like a young(?) (newly carnivorous (too tired to think of a proper word)) D. capensis. I like it. Good luck!
Andrew

 

[DJ57]

They are very similar to D. arcturi. There is a description of them here: http://icps.proboards.com/thread/6775/drosera-murfetii

 

[Tacks]

Wow! I'll be checking in on this thread. How exciting to grow a plant new to cultivation.

 

[kulamauiman]

Probably short growing season. Might need to go dormant. D, acturi may need yo be fed a lot. Dunno if this new one is the same

 

[hcarlton]

D. murfetii is the larger of the two Australian tundra species, and supposedly the easier one to grow. With their short growing season and small number of carnivorous leaves, lots of food probably is good, and they need very cool temperatures at all times. And of course, during winter they need a long, very cold dormant period, even dropping well below freezing at times is tolerated. High levels of light also are probably needed, what with their high elevation.
I may or may not be getting one soon, so we can both see how well they grow.

 

[theplantman]

Neat opportunity. I'm sure you will give it your best shot! You're a talented grower!

 

[Cthulhu138]

As stated above, this is a newly described species from a very small range in the Hartz Mountains Tasmania where it grows alongside it's close relative, D.arcturi. Until recently, this plant was thought to just be a large form of D.arcturi, and like it's close relative only sends out 1 or 2 carnivorous leaves at a time. There is also a suspected 3rd species similar to these 2 growing around Queenstown. D.murfetii is supposedly easier to grow than D.arcturi but, I guess we'll know for sure here soon. As Mach said, it enjoys a short, cool growing season, cold dormancy and lots and lots of food. Both of these species usually grow in clumps of the Cushion Plant (Donatia and other closely related species) which leads me to believe it may do well growing in mounds of well established live sphagnum. This plant seems like it would be a good candidate for your bog Djoni. I was also just gifted one of these and it's already begun to start dormancy but, I think I'll keep it in the basement this year with my other Zone 7 plants. Our winters here might be a bit much for it.

 

[Not a Number]

I grew this species from seed when it was still known as the giant form of D. arcturi. The giant form was considered more forgiving than the usual D. arcturi.

Good luck, you have your work cut out for you. If you live at a latitude where there is snow on the ground at least 3 months out of the year you can probably grow it outdoors all year. Otherwise you'll need to provide a cold dormancy. Refrigerator temperatures may not be sufficiently cold. More the better if you have swarms of midge flies or something similar to feed them during the growing season.

 

[bluemax]

I, too have been given a specimen of this plant. Or, at least, I assume it is the same as the two already posted. I am told mine was originally from a Czech nursery, though they no longer show any for sale on their website.

After looking through the species description given by Allen Lowrie and J.G. Conran in their paper, available from the link DJ has given above, I am in doubt that this is actually D. murfetii as they have described it. On my plant there are two long carnivorous leaves and It looks to me like the plant is trying to produce more. According to the paper the single best identifier is the presence of short basal leaves accompanied by one or two only longer carnivorous leaves. My plant shows no sign of ever having had short basal leaves. This would make me believe it is D. arcturi.

Anyway, whatever species it is I am pleased to have it and I am hoping on figuring out what it wants to be healthy. I think the suggestions given above are a great place to start. I can't help but wonder if there is anyone out there who has had success with either of these two species.

 

[bluemax]

Not a Number - you and I were posting at the same time so I hadn't seen your reply. How long were you able to keep yours alive and how large did it get? Growing from seed sounds even more difficult.

 

[DJ57]

All the input is much appreciated, thank you.

It looks like I should throw it outside for winter then. Our winters are not quite as cold as their native habitat, so hoping it can adapt and that the temps will be low enough for it to go dormant. It is in a small 2" pot, so I think I will repot it into something larger before putting it outside next month. I do have a larger pot outside with live sphagnum growing on top of a peat/perlite mix that I can use, although I just threw a bunch of Darlingtonia seed in it...might make nice companion plants, haha.

 

[bluemax]

An update - first the photos:

Note the undercurled tentacles. I don't know if this is normal but it looks likes a reaction to the growing environment possibly.

The present growing conditions are humidity in the range of 50% to 80% and temperatures from the high 50's F. to the high 70's F. It seems to me the plant has grown better since I potted it in long-fibered sphagnum moss and perlite. I have tried to grow it in cooler conditions but growth was extremely slow. Of the 6 leaves it has produced in my care only one was non-carnivorous so far. I am a bit mystified as to the tentacles that bend backwards over the to the backside of the leaves. 'Just doesn't look right to me. Otherwise this plant seems healthy and vigorous and is being grown in the same conditions that I use for my South African sundews.

The additional information about the plant I am growing was that the original tag said: "Giant Form, the Druids, Tasmania". I am wondering if this is only source for this species at this time or if there are others?

 

[Dexenthes]

That's a really intriguing plant! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Cthulhu138]

Looks great Mark ! Curious to see if mine made it through the winter.

 

[DJ57]

Nice D. murfetii Mark! Puts mine to shame, haha. Your conditions seem to be more to their liking. My big one is in the unheated garage window under a shop light and judging from yours may want a warmer environment. It is doing okay, but growing very slowly compared to yours.

I wanted to share that I was successful at propagating D. murfetii from a leaf cutting. I took one small leaf cutting and put half in an open shallow container of wet LFS with the leaf barely floating and the other half in a test tube of water. The leaf in the open LFS container produced strikes in a month or so under normal household conditions about 10” under a T12 shop light and the test tube container produced strikes in 2 months or so, also about 10” from the same shop light. The test tube strikes are still barely more than nubs and it will be some time before they are big enough to pot up. The pics below are the leaf-cutting plantlets from the LFS container that I potted up last week. The pot is in the house on a windowsill across the room from the shop light/shelf they were born on so they can get some real sunlight. I am using a weak orchid fertilizer spray to feed them. They are growing much slower than other sundews I have done from leaf cuttings, but conditions may be the reason for that.

[/url]D. murfetii babies by Djoni C, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]D. murfetii leaf-cutting plantlets by Djoni C, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[LuluMegan]

A friend of mine grows D. Arcturi successfully in New Zealand. He has them set up in a bog where he has a cold water pump system running through it.

Here are some pictures of some of his, I messaged him with a link to this thread, maybe he'll have some good input

 

[DJ57]

Nice. Thank you for sharing! More information from your friend about care of these guys would be much appreciated.

 

[mato]

Looks great!

 

[bluemax]

@Dexenthes, Cthulhu138 and mato - Thanks for the comments on my plant, guys.

@LuluMegan - Thank you for jumping in with the photos. I notice that the second one shows a plant with non-carnivorous leaves. I am still trying to get my head wrapped around what the difference between D. arcturi and D. murfetii is. Any comments from your friend would be very welcome.

@DJ57 - Very nice! This is certainly useful information. I now have some leaf cuttings in water and lfs and I'm looking for strikes!