Advice with P. medusina. Dormant or dead?

[rcccarnivores]

I got a P. medusina in April 2024. It came as a couple small plants with some thin carnivorous leaves. I potted in a mostly mineral mix of turface, pumice, and perlite with a little peat. Over the next few weeks the leaves on both plants started to dry up and the only thing that's left is a small bulb that looks like a shallot. It's been that way for last couple months.

I know that dormancy for this plant is described as being like an onion bulb underground, but my bulb doesn't look anything like the other examples of dormant plants I've seen online. The examples I've seen all look like a ball with the leaves wrapped around it, not a dry shallot-looking things like I have.

Any input on if my plant is dormant or just dead?

If dormant, it seems to be off cycle. I've read it's usually dormant in the winter. Anything I can do it encourage it to start growing again or does it need to go through the 6+ month dormancy to spring back.

Thanks

What it looked like when I got it (April 2024)



what it looks like now (since May 2024)



This is the example I've found online for what a dormant plant looks like

 

[jeff 2]

for me it is dormant.maybe you could wake it up by rehydrating it, especially be very careful not to add too much water otherwise it will rot.

their dormant period: from October to May

 

[adnedarn]

I'd call it dormant. The photo you found online is what I get if I remove a couple outer layers from ping onions, otherwise they look like yours.

 

[jeff 2]

mine actually , rehydrate at the beginning of May

 

[hcarlton]

medusina and its relative heterophylla are some of the very ,very few Mexican butterwort species that actually go dormant. Yours are currently, and should remain dry with only occasional light spritzes of water to the soil until they start growing again, as any significant amount of water before then can rot them.

Plants in cultivation do not always follow what they would in the wild per seasons. Obey what they demand of you, not what you think they should be doing.

 

[rcccarnivores]

medusina and its relative heterophylla are some of the very ,very few Mexican butterwort species that actually go dormant. Yours are currently, and should remain dry with only occasional light spritzes of water to the soil until they start growing again, as any significant amount of water before then can rot them.

Plants in cultivation do not always follow what they would in the wild per seasons. Obey what they demand of you, not what you think they should be doing.

Thanks everyone above for the confirmation on dormancy. I guess I'll have to hope it starts growing again before I kill it. I imagine that in the wild these plants have seasonal cues to start growing again. If I'm growing it indoors under 16 hr/day grow lights, what would be the plant's signal to start growing again?

 

[jeff 2]

in fact it starts growing again with the spring rains (May-June)

see here more info: Pinguicula medusina