Funky Flowers

[Not a Number]

"Fang"
This stalk started coming up beginning of winter, stalled and started growing again a few weeks ago. I thought the leaves looked funky.

 

[theplantman]

That's crazy. They appear to have a nutrient deficiency pattern too--dark green center with marginal chlorosis and necrotic leaf tips. Same for the tiny leaflets on the stalk. I've seen axillary plantlets on VFTs but never ever a second flower stalk shooting out of the plantlet!!

 

[dionae]

Now that is strange.

 

[Acro]

That's cool! I love odd stuff.

 

[Tacks]

That's really weird. I wonder what might have caused something like this?

 

[Dexenthes]

Dioneae proves its bizarreness once again.

 

[Acro]

Oh please please please feed that trap! And post photos (or a video) of it!

 

[deryl]

Ok, I definitely can't top the funky behavior in the picture above, but I do have another question about flowering. Each VFT only puts out a single flower stalk, correct? Last year I bought a couple VFT's, and this year, it looks like one of the plants is sending up a double flower stalk. Since I am fairly new at this, I am assuming that there are actually 2 plants in this pot right next to each other, and each is sending up its own flower? I have examined the traps & might be able to convince myself that there are 2 different sizes, but I wondered if anyone had seen this and could tell me different.

And yes, I have read all the info about possible death to the plant by letting it flower, but I have a number of other VFT plants & I figure, what the heck, let's live dangerously ... the worst that could happen? It would give me an excuse to buy a couple more plants ;-)

 

[theplantman]

Ok, I definitely can't top the funky behavior in the picture above, but I do have another question about flowering. Each VFT only puts out a single flower stalk, correct? Last year I bought a couple VFT's, and this year, it looks like one of the plants is sending up a double flower stalk. Since I am fairly new at this, I am assuming that there are actually 2 plants in this pot right next to each other, and each is sending up its own flower? I have examined the traps & might be able to convince myself that there are 2 different sizes, but I wondered if anyone had seen this and could tell me different.

And yes, I have read all the info about possible death to the plant by letting it flower, but I have a number of other VFT plants & I figure, what the heck, let's live dangerously ... the worst that could happen? It would give me an excuse to buy a couple more plants ;-)

Each VFT plant grows from a bulblike stem below ground. This bulb may divide into several connected rosettes (or ''crowns"). Usually the youngest crowns will have smaller leaves than the older ones. Each crown will send up its own flower stalk when it's mature. It's a good bet that your double-stalked plant is actually one genetically identical plant sending up two stalks. This can exhaust your plant, so I would remove at least one flower stalk. Many growers would suggest removing both. I recommend, if you plan to keep your stalks, to ensure that you are providing both bright/full light and ample feeding. Usually the VFTs that flower to death were in suboptimal growing conditions (IMO). I lost two VFTs last year right as they were making seeds just because I neglected feeding. I get almost 16 hours of unobstructed sun in the summer, but I never fertilized or fed bugs to the traps at all. The traps just kept getting smaller and smaller until the plants died--the seeds had only ripened halfway, too.

 

[deryl]

Thanks for the info. I would agree that the 2nd stalk is from a genetically identical plant, so I plan to cut one off. My plants are grown indoors with ~ 17 hrs of light per day. I have already started to feed the traps following the instructions found here (http://www.carnivorousplants.org/howto/Feeding/FeedingDBWSBS.php), and usually I get lots of volunteer insects during the summer that are attracted by the lights, but I will keep an eye on them any way. Thanks again for the help.

 

[Not a Number]

Test to see if the trap is functional

Yup!

 

[theplantman]

That's cool that it works. I am personally very interested in seeing how the yellow/green coloration patterns change in response to the feeding.

 

[Acro]

Test to see if the trap is functional
Yup!

What did you feed it?

 

[Not a Number]

Air

 

[Acro]

Too bad the traps don't feed on air . . . why not try feeding something like a bug?

 

[Gigantea]

Ah, thought I was alone here! I've had the same thing happen with two plants I discovered just a few minutes ago and was coming on to make a thread about it.

The planet actually looks pretty healthy. The stalk had no stall, it just came right up. Same with the other plant but I couldn't get as good a picture of it. The flowers haven't even opened yet.

 

[Not a Number]

The flower part seems awful healthy too. I was planning on feeding the trap but it got damaged battering against other plants in the high winds we've been having. Ed Read tells me that 'Red Piranha' is prone to growth like this.

 

[Bio]

I haven't had this happen with Dionaea, but D. capensis did grow a small leaf on the flower stalk. It looked just like a D. peltata leaf. It makes you wonder if this is how erect and climbing tuberous Drosera evolved.

 

[Gigantea]

So, the question now....

Can I make it a separate plant?

 

[hcarlton]

You could cut it off and root it. That would make a new plant very quickly, especially if it's already a rosette on its own.