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Hello to all who are (or will be) attempting to germinate D.meristocaulis!! I'd like to ask for all your help in a very important scientific study of this species.

In 1997 Conran et al published a cool paper entitled "Droseraceae germination patterns and their taxonomic significance". They showed that there is a lot of taxonomic information that can be obtained by observing the germination of Drosera seeds.

Therefore, it would be extremely interesting to register the initial stages of D.meristocaulis germination. These are the characteristics to observe:


1.) Do cotyledons emerge from the seed testa? There are 3 types:

-- Phanerocotylar - cotyledons emerge fully from the seed (known from D.burmannii, D.binata, D.hamiltonii, D.indica, most New World, African, & north temperate Drosera spp.)
-- Hemicryptocotylar - cotyledons partially emerge from the seed and photosynthetic (only known from D.adelae among Drosera)
-- Cryptocotylar - cotyledons remain largely enclosed withing seed (known from tuberous & pygmy Drosera, the petiolaris-complex, D.glanduligera, and I suspect D.meristocaulis too)

2.) Do the cotyledons have sessile glands? Numerous taxa from subgen Drosera are known to have them, but I'd guess D.meristocaulis doesn't.

3.) Are the first leaves reduced, non-carnivorous and generally prophyllar? This characteristic is known from erect tuberous species of sect.Ergaleium and is probably not the case of D.meristocaulis.

4.) Are all the leaves alternate or is the first pair (or initial pairs) opposite and the rest alternate? It is not clear in the paper which species have this character. On table 1 only one species from section Arachnopus (as well as Drosophyllum) is said to have opposite first leaves, but below this table on page 215 it is written: "First leaves were alternative in all taxa
except Drosophyllum, and non-carnivorous first leaves confined to Aldrovanda and a few taxa within sect.Ergaleium."

5.) What was the minimum number of days to first germination? The longest times to germination were registered for tuberous & pygmy species and those of section Ptycnostygma (cistiflora, pauciflora, etc.), with mean values of 90-174 days (probably reflecting the summer dormancy habits of these taxa).Most of the remaining taxa varied from 10-40 days, which seems to be the case for D.meristocaulis. But please register, if possible, the number of days to first germination for D.meristocaulis and we'll average them out
afterwards.


Thanks to all!!
Fernando Rivadavia

P.S. If any of you have doubts in relation to complicated terms I used or anything else written above, please don't be shy to ask!!!
 
Great news!!!

Other than Ivan Snyder, another friend has reported success germinating D.meristocaulis in vitro!

"I already had and am having plenty of germination of D.meristocaulis.
Mine have started by growing a fine deep red , tap root.approximatly 1 week ago."

Yep, sounds like a true pygmy Drosera! ;)

Good luck to all,
Fernando Rivadavia
 
Hello to all again!

Another case of D.meristocaulis seed germination, now the third!! See Andreas Fleischmann's mail to the CP listserv:

"I can confirm Ivan's notice that the germination pattern of D.meristocaulis is phanerocotylar! Moreover, Ivan, you are right that not all pygmies seem to hide their cotyledons in the testa. I noticed this way of germination in D.occidentalis, D.microscapa and relatives, but the D.pulchella I did germinate from seed once had clearly visible, non-carnivorous cotyledons (i.e. phanerocotylar germination!)."


As for Darren (the 2nd guy to germinate them), he wrote:

"Seed was initiated on 28-12-04 invitro. So far only about 20% germination. one plant is already producing its 2nd-3rd true leaf now. seedlings are very small and dont look like they have any cotyledons, and all parts are very red."

So we seem to have a disagreement on whether D.meristocaulis is crypto or phanerocotylar...

Keep the news coming guys!

Best Wishes,
Fernando Rivadavia
 
So far no luck with mine
smile_h_32.gif


Glenn
 
Congratulations to Belinda from Sydney, Australia!!!


Belinda writes:

>It Seems as if my Meristocaulis seeds have also germinated .
>I used a double greenhouse type of setup and with Sydney Australia's wild recent weather may have triggered germination ( red hot then cold etc).
>The seeds were sown on the 17/1/05 and definite germination i noticed today 4/2/05.
>They appear to be Phanerocotylar in my opinion .
>Fingers crossed they continue to develop .


She's now the 4th person to germinate D.meristocaulis!!! And fast too, only 18 days!! So far Australia leads the race! Australia 2, rest of the world 2!!
smile.gif
:)

>My seeds where sown on a potting medium of 1 part coarsesand , 2 parts spaghnam peat and 1 part coarse perlite .
>The pot was then placed in a water tray abt 1inch deep on second shelf of small portable green house with a second water tray directly beneath on >bottom shelf .i also used the top of a 1.5lt coke bottle on pot itself to create extra humidity.The green house gets abt 70% indirect sun all day .
>I think the rapid wheather changes in Sydney recently could have been the key to germination.

Sounds like she may have hit on an interesting tip for quick germination too...

Best of luck,
Fernando Rivadavia


P.S. Hope to be able to add more people to this list when I return from the Carnaval holliday next Thursday! ;) I might even see a few CPs at the beach...
 
Hi Fernando,

My meristocaulis are also starting to germinate(sown in-vitro 12/20). I am guessing that these may require warmer temperatures during the day to speed up germination. The seedling appears to be Phanerocotylar.
 
I have both D. meristocaulis and D. hirticalyx germinating.
 
Hello to all!

Back from carnaval on the beach and happy to see we have 3 more lucky CPers to add to the list!!! Congrats to Sean from Australia, Matt from New York, and "CP2K" from California (ah how I wish people used their real names on these forums!!
smile.gif
:) ).

If possible, Sean & Matt, please observe if the cotyledons are coming out of the seed coat or not! "CP2K" reports D.meristocaulis as being phanerocotylar (cotyledons emerging from the seed coat), while most people have so far reported cryptocotylar (cotyledons remaining inside the seed coat).

At least one person has confirmed that the phanerocotylar seedlings observed are apparently stray seed contaminating the D.meristocaulis pot. So the tendency so far seem to be cryptocotylar....

Sean reports germination for D.roraimae and D.hirticalyx too (hopefully for the spectacular Marahuaka forms!).


Congrats to all!!
Fernando Rivadavia
 
Hello to all who are attempting to germinate D.meristocaulis or have already succeeded in doing so.

I've been travelling a lot for work over the past 2 months (and doing a little CPing on the side too, but nothing too exciting) and would like to hear from all of you.

Has anybody else had luck germinating seeds? What about those of you who already had germination, how are the plants doing? How many leaves do they have? Have any of them flower yet?? Yeah sure!! Hahaha! ;)

Best Wishes,
Fernando Rivadavia
 
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