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Ripped again!

Well I opened my package today from Black Jungle terrarium supply with great expectations and what I see in this 2 1/2" pot before me is most likely U. longifolia and not U. alpina. Doesn't alpina have kinky sided leaves which stand almost errect? these are basically flimsy 2" long and flat but do come to a sort of petiole near the soil.

Anyone have photos of young alpina plants they could show me to compare to before I send a complaint to BJ? (the pics on their site catalog does looks like alpina but this doesn't).

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Interesting. One thing you could do is look for tubers - longifolia does no have any. Alpina will also have much thinker stolons. Alpina also doesn't really grow in a rosette form like longifolia does. New leaves on alpina should unfurl like the leaf of a fern, longifolia just grows straight out. If you have a microscope you could look at the traps - longifolia has long stalked glandular apendages, while U. alpina does not.

This being said, I recently received some U. endresii from Best CP, and I assume it came from tissue culture. It exhibits similar characteristics to your "alpina" - uncharacteristicly shaped leaves that are flimsy and limp. Does your source grow alpina from tissue cultured material?
 
Hi Dodec,
The plant came potted in a very dense peat media but there are many stolons growing out over the surface, It is not rosetted but scattered leaves.

I do have a microscope 100-900 power and also a thing called "geoscope" which magnifies to 50 power. I'll give it a whirl tomorrow. I did not see any new leaves emerging so no idea on the fern frond aspect yet.

If it is alpina it should be growing in long fibered sphagnum fine bark like a highland nep correct? Since I just received  it and it's in peat should I soak it til the peat falls away and replant in LFS/bark (this way I could see if there were tubers) but will that be too harsh a treatment for a new arrival?

I don't know how or where they get their CPs. this one has obviously bee potted a while cos it's filled the 2 1/2" pot with stolons and about 30 leaves, and the peat is somewhat compacted (probably why the stolons are on the surface).
 
Hey how do like that geoscope? - I've considered buying one, but it looked a bit too much like a childrens toy (which it is, of course). I've considered buying one od these, though: http://www.fisheredu.com/catalog/catalog.cgi?item=b0006

Back to the topic...

I just had a look at the Black Jungle website. The plant in the picture looks an awful lot like U. longifolia to me. Have a look, others.

If one wanted to make money, selling U. longifolia would be a way better idea than U. alpina, and it seems odd that they would have selected only U. alpina to sell.

How about this one: look at the thick stolons (>~.5mm) that are coming off the surface. Do the finer branches coming off these stolons branch more than once (longifolia) or are they short with just a few traps on them (alpina)?

rosetted isn't a very good description of longifolia - it's not like a ping or a sundew, but it will tend to have several leaves radiatating from each growing point, whereas alpina tends to just have the leaves in loose groups.

The fact that it's planted in dense peat also points to longifolia. Stolons on the surface are normal for both plants. I grow alpina in a mix of dried sphagnum and orchid bark, with a 1-2cm layer of pure dried sphagnum on the surface.

I think that you may indeed have been ripped off, again. That really sucks. Email me, and I'll try and fix you up with something (not alpina though, I'm afraid).
 
Swords

I will jump in here and agree with what Dodec says, it sounds an awful lot like longifolia, at least mine. If you want, email me and I'll reply back with some alpina pics.

Dodec,

So I have you to thank for taking the last of BestCPs endresii
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Ok, I slid the peat mass out of the pot (in mostly one piece) but one of the very thick underground stolons (1 mm thick measured with my wooden mead ruler) broke off so I scanned it on my flatbed scanner hopefully this will give you some idea of its underground "root" system.

utricalpifolia.jpg


The leaves shown on top are clumped and not the way they are when not stuck together with "mud"... so, what do you guys think?
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The geoscope is nice but I will have to try it outside in sunlight as the light which accompanies the lense is far too minimal to see with any great clarity inside the house. Nothin glike the glittering minature world shown on the box! I'll let you know if it's better outside or in a bright window but just in my dark house (lit by terraria for the most part) and usng the small light mounted on it, it doesn't work that great. At leats it was only $15. I might have to break down and get that botanist dissection lense and stage from Edmundton Science for $50...
 
Apart from many other differences Ut. longifolia and Ut. alpina are easy to distinguish by their leaf thickness alone. Ut. longifolia hase quite thin leafes while the leafes of Ut. alpina are very thick. They are two or three times thicker than those of Ut. longifolia. The colour of newly emerging leafes of my plants is also different. Ut. alpina has bright green shots, while those of Ut. longifolia are more brown in colour.

Joachim
 
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Pyro @ Oct. 25 2002,2:27)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Dodec,

So I have you to thank for taking the last of BestCPs endresii  
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I doubt I took the *last* one, I ordered it in March.
 
I went a bit nuts but I ordered a video microscope which I can attach to the PC and take good clear stills or video so now I can really examine the utrics! I'll post some pics when the unit arrives and I figure out how to use it. Hopefully it comes tomorow as I ordered it shipped express priority overnight (whatever that means).
 
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sword,

express priority overnight means you will get the box w/ in a week or 2 all crushed up and damaged no just joking. you will most likely get your package tomorrow usally it takes a day or 2 to get stuff like that.
 
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