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Green dragon? green common?

jimscott

Tropical Fish Enthusiast
I bought a trio of red VFT's in one 2" pot from Home Depot last August. I successfully brought them through dormancy and two of the three are rewarding me with a flower stalk. They went from being very red to looking mostly green, afetr dormancy. After a few weeks of gradually warming them up, I put them outside for sun and photosynthesis. It has been two months now and the although the new leaves and traps are twice the size of what they were last Fall, their traps are still green. Inside the trap it is reddish. Why aren't the traps turning red?
 
Basic rule: the more sun the redder the traps! I reccamend bathing that VFT in full direct sun! Maybe they are about to turn all red? Just wait.
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Hey Uglypho, some info! Your basic rule unfortunately does not apply to the coloring up of VFT's. Venus' are so strange, and I have studied them a lot for the last 42 years. In some instances, you can have a VFT that is in all aspects a typical. A typical to me is a green plant with a reddish tinge inside the traps. However, in Davis, California at the UCD greenhouses, I was growing an aquarium full of VFT's. It had no lid. I would set the plants out to catch the first six hours of morning sun, when I had them at home. I got permission from a gentleman on the grounds to use one of their old glass greenhouses. Where this greenhouse was situated it got the first six hours of sun a day. It was shaded the rest of the day by an adjacent building. Nothing changed much for the first week, and all the plants looked the same, i.e. typical. Then to my suprise, they whitewashed the greenhouse to cut down the heat. The greenhouse was still real bright, but the next changes suprised me. Out of 20 plants, three quarters of them suddenly colored up like their was no tomorrow. Red banded, pink, red, or maroon "teeth", and the most beautiful sight I had seen for some time. They remained that way for the summer. Fading only when the winter came. The rains of winter and spring washed the whitewash off the greenhouse. When the sun returned, I had a tank full of typicals. Two weeks later, they whitewashed the greenhouse again, and boom! They colored up in that amazing way that only VFT's can. When the tank came home with me again, away went the color, even though they got the same sun everyday. I finally went and got some greenhouse whitewash, and placed a glass panel a few feet above the tank, and whitewashed it too. The results knocked my socks off. The color came back. What was different? Only how the sun bathed the plants in their light. The plants that got the benefit of a brilliant light but suffused gave these particular plants their trigger to color up. Some of the plants in the tank, never changed at all. VFT's respond differently to the light of day because of their genetics, and how it tells the anthocyanin in different plants what to respond to, or the anthocyanin isn't "turned on" at all. Some VFT's will definitely respond to bright sun and color up and be beautiful. Others will not, until you discover what the trigger is. Does it prefer bright suffused light, or does it like bright sun. Does it like a sun-shade difference to trigger? Does it like straight blazing sunlight? Does it respond to bright suffused light? Lots to learn guys. Pay close attention to what sets your plant to do what it does. I have observed a lot over these many years, and the question of what colors them has always been an intriging one to me. PM me if you have any questions, and because you may have experienced something with your plants that I have not observed, and I would be interested in knowing what is happening with your babies.
 
Wow Bugweed, that's an amazing account and very interesting indeed! I'll have to experiment with my own growing collection of Dionaea cultivars over time - thanks again for the interesting article!  
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Top stuff, Bugweed! Don't think my folks would be too chuffed to see me loitering near their greenhouse with a tin of Dulux, though...
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Food for thought indeed.
 
Those VFT's have been totally sun-bathed on the east side of the lab building, getting south and east sun. Should be an interesting summer.
 
Oops!! Something I should have added. If your VFT's traps are turning red, and they should catch a meal--that's it!! Catching prey will set the color and it will not color up beyond where it was. Didn't I tell you they were strange critters?
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??
 
Hmmmm, that could be significant.
 
More significant than many people realize, Jim. Full sun alone is not the answer. Many variables, and you have to find the right combination.
 
  • #10
My VFP Green dragons were almost all red last summer. When I bought them they were almost totall red but for a little green in the traps. After winter they havev sprouted up a mix of green and red. They get about 3 hours of total direct sun and bright Light ( the house next doors the sun reflects off it and all the plants get about 7 hours of bright light. As for in the house the green dragons there are almost all green ( window sill growing ( well trying). They get about 4 hours of direct sun. Also the VFT's in a little greenhouse out back in the yard I have regular or common VFT's With really hight humidity and shaded but bright light, they have really red traps and the leaves are a bright green. the Dragons there are small ones but totaly RED LOL almost to the point that i thought the wilted in the heat I mean the color of almost dried blood.........................

So to Bugweeds thought He hit it on the mark!!!

Good Call

Jim
 
  • #11
Mine are getting a little redder, but not nearly to the extent they were when I bought them last August, presumably fresh out of tissue culture. They were purchased as 3 in one 2" pot and 2 of the three are flowering. One of them and I'm not sure which, produced a baby plant, like a runner. Right now I am glad that the are healthy!
 
  • #12
I dont know why they call it a "green Dragon" all of mine are DARK red with no green at all! Even redder then the red dragon.
 
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