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Blanchetii and parthenopipes

O.K another question about utrics...

Are parthenopipes and blachetii the same species? When looking for info on cultivation I often see these two listed as synonyms. I don't have blanchetii but my parthenopipes flower is white and the scrape is long. The pics of blanchetti I've found look nothing like my parthenopise.
Clarification is in order...

Thanks
Damon
 
That's a tricky one. As far as I know, they are still considered separate species, as described in Taylor. However, Taylor describes the white colour as being a dependable characteristic for separating blanchetii and parthenopipes.

I beleive that the plant called U. parthenopipes that is most common in cultivation is one that was collected by Fernando Rivadavia (sp.?) as what he considered to be a white form of U. blanchetii. I remember reading that he said that parthenopipes is quite obviously different than U. blanchetii when seen in real life, but did not specify how it was different. Looking at Taylor, the upper corolla lobe should be more square, and the spur shorter and blunter.

All the pictures that I've seen on the internet seem to be of the white U. blanchetii. I have a plant now that is supposed to be the "real" U. parthenopipes, but it looks to be a long way from flowering at the moment. I will post a picture if it ever produces a flower.
 
I think we should all post pictures of our U. parthenopipes, mine has flowered none stop since I first obtained it! I definetly think this is a species that should be more readily available.....I will divide mine in the next month or 2 and give some away!  

How many of us are growing U. blanchetii? Is it as free flowering?  If anyone would like to trade me some I would be interested, Im not sure what I have to trade right now, I have had a very busy past 2 months, Ive had little time to spend on my plants (curiously though I have been dividing them, but Im not really paying attention to what I was dividing)
 
Hi everyone,

This is a photo of the plant I grow as U. blanchettii-

Utricularia%20blanchettii3.jpg


and this is my U. parthenopipes-

Utricularia%20parthenopipes2.jpg


They are definitely very distinct as far as I am concerned. This is assuming that they are named correctly. I believe they are.

Cheers,

Sean.

(fixed it. Was a typo http://http://)
 
Is it just me or are other people having difficulty seeing these pictures? If it's just me, what should I do?

Giles
 
It's not just you, I can't see them either and I posted them. Did I do something wrong when posting? Or doesn't the server like my URL?

Sean.
 
Thanks for fixing the photo Tony. Sorry about the incompetence on my part guys. I'll make sure I check before submitting next time.

Cheers,

Sean.
 
I see them now. Those photos look more or less the same as the flowers I've had from my plants - my 'parthenopipes' I received as the white U. blanchetii. There are photos of all 3 (parthenopipes and blue & white blanchetii) on this website Photos of Utricularia

I can't detect any difference between the photos of white blanchetii and parthenopipes. I haven't had that many flowers off my plants, and those of my blue blanchetii seem very variable, with various deformities - one I quite liked was missing most of the lower lip and just had a pair of pointed 'wings' on either side, like on a bucket orchid but with no bucket.

Giles
 
This is the flower on a Utric in my care, which came labelled as U. blanchetii 'white-flower' (apologies for the lack of depth of field, but I could wait several days for the sun to come back out in England! ). I can see similarities and differences to the photo above of U. parthenopipes, but I suspect from the small size of the flowers, colour of the corolla and relatively short, blunt spur, that it is U. parthenopipes.


parth1.jpg


I am also growing a Utric, which came labelled as U. parthenopipes, but I don't expect it to flower until next year. Hopefully, I'll be able to make a side-by-side comparison of the two then.

Vic
 
  • #10
This is what I have labelled as U. parthenopipes. This plant came from BestCP.


UparthenopipesCR.jpg
 
  • #11
Ok....I was going to post my pic but Tony's is better and my plant came from him so its identical!
 
  • #12
This is precisely why I started this post. The pics of white blanchetii and blanchetii are more similar to each other than to the prthenopipes shown in Tony P's pic.
My parthenopipes flower is identical to Tony's.  The source for material is also Best CP.  There seems to be significant differences between parthenopipes and white blanchetti in the flower structure (as shown by Vic and Sean).  Could this simply a problem with mislabelling or are these flowers two different forms of the same species?

Damon
 
  • #13
The white blanchetii seems to have come into cultivation from seed collected by Fernando Rivadavia and grown by Lloyd Wix (see CP mailing list article here.

I would suspect that most of the specimens of "U. parthenopipes" in cultivation now are decendents of Lloyd Wix's plant.

According to Taylor, the distinguishing characteristics are flower size and the shape of the upper corolla lip:

Corolla 10-15 mm long, the upper lip wider than long, with apex retuse [rounded with a slight notch] = blanchetii

Corrolla 4-6 mm long, the upper lip as wide as long, with apex 3-crenate [cut into 3 scallops] = parthenopipes

The plant I have has flowers in the nebulous 6-10 mm range, but the upper corolla lip definitely indicates U. blanchetii and not U. parthenopipes.
 
  • #14
It's always difficult to resolve taxonomic difficulties with plants in cultivation, where there is very limited variation. Perhaps we should just trust Fernando's judgement in the field.
N.B. Loyd Wix, not Lloyd

Giles
 
  • #15
My "real" U. parthenopipes has flowered and it is definitely the real thing. The trick seems to be that upper corolla lobe. Just like in Taylor's key, it is as wide as it is long, and has two well defined notches, dividing it into three small scallops, the one in the center being smaller than the outer two. The flower is also about 5 mm long.
 
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