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Utricularia monanthos

Hi,

My plant finally opened a flower the first time for me. Here is what it looks like.

monanthos_UTRI18_022_18062004tn.jpg
monanthos_UTRI18_021_18062004tn.jpg


higher resolution       higher resolution

regards,
Christian
 
U. monanthos is a really nice plant. I find that since it has such short peduncles that the flower opens before I notice that it was even growing an inflorescence.

Another interesting thing about U. monanthos is that the stolons grow so deeply in the soil that the leaves will grow all the way up from the bottom of a three-inch pot.
 
How tall is the inflorescence? It is hard to tell from the photo but it appears to bit a little taller than what I would expect for U. monanthos.
 
Nice U.dichotama var. monanthos(Isn`t that what it`s called) The purple is stunning.:)
 
I don't think that monanthos is even a variety, it's just U. dichotoma with one small flower and a short inflorescence. I suppose that someone could register a cultivar name for it, but it couldn't be "monanthos" because it can't be a latin name.

On my plant the inflorescence is about 2-4 cm.
 
I would have to check, but I thought Taylor listed them seperately. Which is good enough for me! lol

I am so glad I am not a Utricularia taxonomist...

T
 
From the photo shown I don't think that this is actually a U. dichotoma var. monanthos. the flowerscape appears to be too tall. It is very common for this species to be incorrectly labelled.
 
Here is a picture of mine. Pretty blurry background but you can see the scape is all of a couple cm tall. The other thing I have noticed alot is that U. dichotoma has that little yellow ridge in the center of the two longer ones while this guy only has the 2 longer ones. Not sure if that is significant.
UmonanthosBCQueenstown.jpg

Tony
 
  • #10
Hi,

I'm not (yet) very much into Utricularia taxonomy. So there is a good chance, that this one is wrong labeled. I have just measured the inflorescence. It is about 13cm tall. From what i'v read in Taylor's Book, it should be only 1-4cm, but can get up to 15cm (but this seems to be an exception). Is the short scape the only thing, that is different to "usual" dichotoma?

Christian
 
  • #11
The leafy stolons of var. monanthos are hollow and can have a slightly swollen appearance in comparison to the typical dichotoma. These stand almost upright on my plants. The flowers are also generally quite a bit smaller and don't have a very wide lower corolla.

Tonys photo is very typical of your average monanthos, quite small and plain looking. The amount of ridges can vary within a population. This feature cannot be reliably used to differentiate between forms of dichotoma.
 
  • #12
Christian, beware! You are walking the edge of Utricularia taxonomy....are you mad? Muahahahaha!
 
  • #13
Christian's flower looks very similar to my U. dichotoma that was mislabeled as moranthos. Pics and discussion can be seen here

Whichever it turns out to be, its still a beautiful flower. Great pic Christian.

Cheers
Steve
 
  • #14
Taylor does list them as separate species. However there is a paper by Ruet & Fineran that presents some quite convincing evidence that U. monanthos, U. novae-zealandia and U. dichotoma are all the same species.

An abstract of the article can be found here.
 
  • #16
Utric taxonomy is a bit of a nightmare. When it comes to breaking down the dichotoma complex by sight it is very hard. I have read reference to populations of monanthos from NZ that have scapes over 10cm tall. I have also read Markus's paper and am not 100% convinced this is the end of the story as I feel some of the evidence is ambiguous and he is interpreting it a certain way (still very good work though). I have a feeling that we are dealing with a species complex here, that is in the process of speciating so the boundries have not been set in stone yet. I have seen a lot of very diferent forms growing in the wild. I have two forms (of 'dichotoma') growing together in a tub of water as aquatics, and both are very different in growth. One has long thin 'leaves' that are about 3cm long and 2mm wide the other has more typical oval 'leaves' about 2cm long and 5mm wide. This is why it can be important to know where your plants originate from.

I have also seen hollow centres of the 'leaves' on many populations. The seed is also simmilar throughout this complex. Marcus will be doing some DNA work on some of the Australia plants soon. This should give a better insight into where these plants fit together.

I have got some pics of seed here,
My Webpage

I will try to get some pics of the traps of some of my plants.

George
 
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