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U. alpina - leaf discoloration

  • Thread starter madrone
  • Start date
I only have a handful of Utricularia species. And, they've all been aquired in the last year, so I'm still pretty new to these plants. I've had this U. alpina about 8 months. Once it settled into my conditions, it unfurled 3 leaves over the summer. But a few weeks ago, I noticed the tips of the new leaves have a bit of a pink color to them. The texture of the tip is the same as the rest of the leaf - firm, not squishy. And behind the pink, the leaf has a bit of a yellow cast, I'm not sure you can see it in the pics below.

The temps in the terrarium where this grows have definitely dropped since the summer - now closer to 60/50 instead of 68/58. And the humidity is pretty high, >80%.

It's growing in a net-pot that sits in a little bowl. Water sometimes collects in the bowl, but the bowl base is a little smaller than the bottom of the pot, so the bottom of the pot (and therefore the plant) isn't really sitting in the water. Also, I dump the water out at least once a week.

There's a chance that it got splashed with some ~100ppm fertilizer as there are also some orchids in the enclosure, but I'm pretty careful not to hit the utric pots as I'm spraying the other plants. I do sometimes (infrequently) use dilute maxsea on the utricularia.

For those of you who grow this species, or other orchidoides types, is this leaf discoloration indicative of sub-optimal cultural conditions? (Too humid, too wet?) Natural leaf senescence? (These are the new leaves grown over the summer, so that seems pretty fast, but I just haven't had experience with many Utricularia to know what to expect) Or fertilizer burn?

If the latter, will it do any good to flush the pot?

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Happy stolons (at least)
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I've seen this on some of my Orchidioides Utricularia but unfortunately I don't know what causes it.
 
I've seen this on some of my Orchidioides Utricularia but unfortunately I don't know what causes it.

Huh - In general, what happens to the leaf? Does the discoloration spread and the leaf falls, or does it "recover" and regain normal pigmentation?

This is actually a division of your U. alpina plant that I acquired in the spring. It's unlikely that it's an individual plant that's exhibiting this discoloration on a cyclical basis, but since it sounds like we're at least talking about the same U. alpina plant and a division thereof...I'm curious if other folks also have similar experience...and/or what other Utricularia (besides U. alpina) have you seen this on?

Anything correlated to when you see the discoloration - Time of year? Temperature shifts? Humidity shifts? Feeding shifts?
 
Looking at old pictures, I don't think it's quite the same as what is happening to your plant. The leaves on mine just turn yellow for the most part. Maybe it is just normal leaf decay.

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I don't think I've ever seen the leaves turn red like on yours
 
The pattern reminds me of one of the symptoms of over-fertilized orchids, though the color is wrong for that. But even so, that might be it.
 
I don't think I've ever seen the leaves turn red like on yours

The pattern reminds me of one of the symptoms of over-fertilized orchids, though the color is wrong for that. But even so, that might be it.

Thank you both for your input!

Super helpful to see pics of your plants Tanukimo! I agree, after looking at your alpina, my "symptoms" might be indicating something different going on.

And, schmiggle, I thought the same thing...either too much light, which I would expect as more of an all-over leaf "blush" (not to mention it has been experienced the same lighting since the spring, or I managed to fertilize the poor thing. Just in case, I'll have to be more careful and remove the utricularia from that tank when I feed the orchids. And will consider a pot flush, although lower winter temps have me a bit concerned about water-logging the pot. Hmmm, decision time.
 
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