Interesting Development from Pulling Attempt

[UnstuckinTime]

Hello Terra Forums!

So, when I was doing through my terrarium cleaning up and feeding and whatever, and happened to look down at a Flytrap leaf that I had been trying to get a strike on for months now. This is what I found (best picture I could get...):

Clearly, plantlets are starting to form along the margin of the petiole, far from the white tissue that was close to the rhizome, and even further from the stem cell tissue. Now, how common is this? I've never seen it before, and to be honest, never even heard of it happening...

The reason it is so interesting to me is that it reminds me of the phenomenon of Drosera plantlets forming on the leaves when placed in moist sphagnum, and especially water. Because they're both in the same family (Droseraceae) perhaps there are some similar genes to that do this (ones that are, I theorize, more readily activated in Drosera). Its the kind of thing I'm looking into doing for my doctor research, and I'm starting some preliminary work on this spring...


Thanks for looking,
CJ

 

[LeafKirby]

I have no idea, but it looks gross.

 

[mmlr38]

Happens all the time in tissue culture Doesn't usually happen in vivo because the leaf will typically rot from microbial activity before it has a chance to grow like that. But I have seen it happen in live sphagnum which inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungi.

 

[UnstuckinTime]

Happens all the time in tissue culture Doesn't usually happen in vivo because the leaf will typically rot from microbial activity before it has a chance to grow like that. But I have seen it happen in live sphagnum which inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungi.

hahaha, so I just got really lucky? I'll take it! I still think it's wicked cool, and it has definitely inspired me to look into when I start doing my research...

 

[mmlr38]

hahaha, so I just got really lucky? I'll take it! I still think it's wicked cool, and it has definitely inspired me to look into when I start doing my research...

Definitely! Along those same lines, here's a conversation that Steve Doonan and I had just a few days ago:

You know, the other day I was looking at the special little VFT clones you sent to me and wondering what the big deal was with Korrigans. It just looked like a regular little typical to me. But a few days ago it developed a slightly larger leaf and trap, and I could see that in place of the usual neck between petiole and trap, there is merely a place where the leaf constricts, which makes the whole leaf/trap look more like a traditional leaf, and that got me thinking that there are quite a few characteristics of the weird clones that look like genetic throwbacks to before the time where Venus Flytraps developed their distinctive modern features and appearance. The cupped trap plants like Louchapates and Triton and Cupped Trap show a leaf that has not yet distinctly bifurcated entirely, the fused spines on some plants and short spines on others show (to me) a time when the spines were just part of a broad flat leaf, before they separated and extended to their current state.

All in all, the common weird characteristics when taken together very much suggest what scientists already think, that Venus Flytraps evolved from a sundew. It's very interesting that this ancient genetic information still shows up now and then, giving us a glimpse into the evolutionary past of the Venus Flytrap.

My response:

I have noticed and often think the same things Steve, about some of the weirder flytrap clones actually being throwbacks to a time when Venus Flytraps were still evolving from sundews. In fact, there is a thread somewhere, I think on the ICPS forums, where Bob Ziemer mentions the same observation. I think it would be kind of neat at some point to write an article with photos of some of these odd flytraps like Korrigans, Louchapates, Pom Pom, Schuppenstiel, etc. and just speculate as to what insight the mutation might give us about the evolution of Venus flytraps.

I've thought about it more over the last few days and have tried to come up with some speculations on some of the odd flytrap clones. The modified leaves of Pom Pom, for example, look very much like some species of Drosera, specifically the petiolaris-complex. The "scaly" leaf blades of Schuppenstiel look like the start of the glandular tentacles on Drosera or the start of callus like what appears in your photo above that also occurs on Drosera leaves.

Anyway, all very cool stuff to speculate about, I think