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Green capillaris or spatulata?

Joseph Clemens

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I obtained this plant as possibly a nearly all-green Drosera capillaris, but after growing it in my conditions for a few weeks it looks most like a Drosera spatulata. Any opinions? It is about to flower and I will post images of them here when they open.

d_spatulata_cap_grn_sml.jpg
 
It looks like capillaris from the Northern U.S., but IDing "Drosera roundandstickya" is never easy without the scapes and flowers. In this case, no stipules (hairs in the center of the plant) are prominent, so capillaris has my vote.
 
H...looks alot like the capillaries 'alba' i have, but mine has some leaves pointing upwards and the tentilces are white. very nice plant though
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Looks like my spatulata... if mine's a spatulata that is.
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Could go either way. Try to get a shot of the scape when it flowers, the arrangement of the buds will nail it.
 
That looks exactly like my Spatulatas....I guess we all need to see the flower.
 
Well, here is a photo of the flower stalk, several flowers are finished blooming. I have not yet caught a flower when it was open, but I will keep trying.

d_capillaris_green_spatulata.jpg


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The scape looks like capillaris to me. It appears glabarous: without stalked or sessile glands. Spatulata has both types of glands on the scape Spatulata scapes have a one sided appearance, and the sepals tips are not closed back over the fruit: a condition found only in spatulata.

Another rule of thumb: spatulata has prominent stipules in the plants center. Capillaris has stipules as well, but not as prominent.

Capillaris is very variable, as is spatulata. This often causes initial confusion. This looks like the Northern U.S. form of capillaris vs. the long arm Southern U.S. form.
 
Tamlin, since you brought up some points of which I was unaware, I thought I had better get a closer shot of these buds.
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d_capillaris_spatulata_closer.jpg
 
  • #10
Tamlin,
Thank you for your attention to this case.

I appologize for my initial flower stalk photo . . . yep, one thing I will know for certain from now on is to be sure that my Macro-Photos' are in focus and Macro. If anyone can offer some photographic pointers for taking these kinds of photos, please share. I am sure that an even better photo is possible. Thanks
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  • #11
Hmmmm, based on the glandular scape it could be spatulata. I guess the jury is out on this one until there is a shot of the open flower. I enjoy a good puzzle:)
 
  • #12
Hi Joseph,

The plant in the pic is not the one I gave you seed of recently, is it? I got that seed from a good friend who I took leaf cuttings from in the past (so I know he has or had the real thing). I also believe that the seed of this which I recently planted (which I think is from the same batch I sent you), side by side with typical capillaris from a known location, sprouted seedlings lacking red. Possibly pink, but not red from what I recall. I just went to check but the sphagnum has overgrown the seedlings (they obviously need transplanting now&#33
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and I don't want to make a mess during dinner... So I will have to check later...

Matt
 
  • #13
Hello Matt,

No, the plants from the seed, so far, appear to be exactly the same as the type I once discovered in a drainage ditch in Pensacola, Florida and distributed through the ICPS seedbank.

The only pigment the seed grown plants display, besides green, is the light pink of their tentacle tips. Time will tell, but I suspect the flowers will be white and the stalk pure green. I sure wish I could trace the origin of this seed to know if it did indeed come from my original collection.

Perhaps some day (as I still have a fair quantity of the original seed, which I am presently having no success at germinating) I could genetically compare this plant with DNA from my original seed. I might even get some of the seed to grow if I plant some in vitro.
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PinguiculaMan aka Joseph Clemens
 
  • #14
Well, still no shot of an open flower. I keep checking and hoping. Perhaps the flowers are not even opening.

I have dissected a bud, however, and observed that the flowers have 5 stigma, each shaped like a miniature sickle, the blade is red with small protrusions where the pollen adheres, then there are two right angles in the transluscent styles, which all meet at the apex of the ovary and with a stamen adjacent to each stigma.

Hold the presses: it seems that the truth may be that the flower does not open completely, I have kept it under close observation for the better part of the last two days. Right now it appears that the flower is "open". That is, there appears to ba a small opening at the tip of the bud where the stigma are exposed, the tips of the petals are "folded under and inside" thereby exposing the stigma through a small opening. I am unable to see the stamen at this time. I marvel at the mechanism this must be and how then can pollen ever be released to effect cross-pollination.

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  • #15
Capillaris is less tidy than that,isnt it? some leaves are held up a bit, and its a bit more spindly, am I correct? Well... I think its the spat...
 
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