Utricularia welwitschii flowers

[RL7836]

A new acquisition (from last fall) has been flowering for the last two weeks or so. Unlike all of the other Utricularia that I've had flower, the blooms have only lasted 2-3 days. Usually Utricularia flowers have been lasting for a few weeks and sometimes months. The scapes are the longest things I've seen on a small Utricularia. Since they are so long, they fall over, start to grow vertically again and fall over once more (& so on).

Here are the pics that I've been able to capture, which sadly do not do justice to the actual beauty of the little flowers & their true colors.

Foliage:

 

[kulamauiman]

Aloha Ron,
this one doesn't seem to want to bloom for me. I moved it outside last year hoping that what it needed was a change in seasons, temp, photo period , etc to get it to bloom. So far nothing. But it hasn't filled up the shoebox as densely as the ones in your pic with the penny. Might need to let it get more crowded maybe?

Mahalo
MTF

 

[RSS]

This looks like a great ground cover Utricularia...How long are the scapes? That could mess things up.

I have the "falling" over problem with Utricularia nephrophylla.

 

[jimscott]

Congrats, Ron! I've had this colony for a few years, now, and I've yet to see it flower. What did you to bring success?

 

[RL7836]

Might need to let it get more crowded maybe?

Congrats, Ron! I've had this colony for a few years, now, and I've yet to see it flower. What did you to bring success?

Hmmm - that's a tough one ... I received the plug, assessed the size, split it into two pieces (one large and one small) and potted them up (one in a 2.5" pot and one in a 1.5" mini-sample cup). Both pots have stalks with flowers.

Bottom line - I have no clue why they flowered for me. Maybe it is the specific clone? I received three different clones of U. nephrophylla and two of them grew very, very slowly. The 3rd grew fast from the moment it was potted and was blooming in a month or two.

So far, U. warburgii is the most stubborn, non-flowering weedy utric for me (ignoring U. tricolor - of course). I've had it for over a year and it grows really well but refuses to send up a stalk...

This looks like a great ground cover Utricularia...How long are the scapes?

The scapes are difficult to measure due to their undulations but one appears to be about 15" (38 cm) and the others a bit shorter (so far - they keep growing as they add flowers). The stalk itself is also significantly thinner than a U. nephrophylla stalk.

I don't know if the penny does justice to the size of the leaves. They are very small. I was surprised as I was cropping the pic as I didn't realize there were that many leaves - they were not obvious when I was taking pics. Again - although not obvious from the pic, the majority of the leaves are darker than other utrics (at least to my eyes).

On a separate note - unrelated to U. welwitschii - it looks like I have flower stalks coming from both windowsill U. longifolia & U. praelonga. I also have two stalks coming from my smallest pot of U. nelumbifolia (different clone from the one that flowered last year - in theory at least).

 

[jimscott]

~5 years ago I had U. welwitschii & U. warburgii:

The former did nothing, as it does now. The latter graced me with flowers.

Fast forward to now:

Nothing!

 

[RL7836]

Fast forward to now:

Jim,
The foliage in those 2 pots look very suspiciously similar. The leaves in my pot of U. welwitschii are significantly smaller than those in my pot of U. warburgii (as well as having other less obvious differences).

Congrats on the U. warburgii flowers btw ...

Sometimes, changes associated with repotting may surprise a plant and stimulate some flower production. I plan to do that with my U. warburgii sometime in the next month or two.

 

[jimscott]

They do look similar... as in probably 2 colonies of U. warburgii. I'll have to ask my supplier about it. I've heard that about repotting. I'm also planning to take my utrics outside for a few months. That got my U. gibba flowering profusely.