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Lamparas de la selva

Here is a photo of the Catopsis berteroniana, just out of the bag, that I received from Wistuba yesterday. It is potted up into a solo mix of coarse perlite. The plant is still small, standing only about a couple of inches tall.

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The title 'Lamparas de la selva' is the common South American name for these plants, meaning 'jungle lanterns', due to their glowing bright yellow color and epiphytic proclivity for growing on bare tree branches or telephone wires.

Whether these plants are truly carnivorous or not is still unclear, although they do readily attract and capture insects.

I have been trying to add this particular bromeliad to my collection for a couple of years now, so I am happy to finally see it here.

* Special thanks to Carnivoure12 for his help with some of the finer points in Spanish translation.
 
Thats a very nice looking plant you received there. I'll have to look into those some day
 
very cool looking, I love the lime green glow, looks very nice thanks for sharing. :)
 
Seems like a really cool plant. :) I'd like to see photos if you can ever get one to grow on a tree.
 
Thanks guys.

Mike, they are available in the states. Next time you're chatting with Clue, ask him for the vendor's name. Clue knows where to get them from.

Capensis, it would probably be easy to train them to grow on a branch or a stick in a terrarium. They grow up into the southern tip of Florida. Maybe a Floridian has some pics of their local growth habits. I'd like to see some pics of them in situ too.
 
Oh, really? I had no idea. But I guess that's because I live in Central Florida. :p But that's interesting. But if they're anything like orchids, it should be pretty easy. My mom recently tied 6 orchids on a tree and 5 of them made it.
 
Here is an update on my Catopsis berteroniana. It has almost doubled in size, growing from about two inches to just over 3.5 inches, since I got it.

It is growing in a four inch pot, in straight perlite and it gets fed the occasional fruit fly from time to time.

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dvg
 
That's just magnificent. I was thinkin' about picking myself up a little Brocchinia, but maybe I'll go for a Catopsis instead. :D

Thanks guys.

Mike, they are available in the states. Next time you're chatting with Clue, ask him for the vendor's name. Clue knows where to get them from.

Doug, that was supposed to be a secret! They sell Brocchinia and Catopsis, by the way. :p
 
How large does this Bromiliad get?
 
  • #11
Aw, so it won't fit in one of my small 10 gallon vertical vivariums, at least not forever.

Would like to get one though, how exactly does it "catch flies" is it sticky or something? I wonder if dart tads would become prey if their parents deposited them in this bromiliad?
 
  • #12
The powdery wax on these plants is quite interesting. If the plants are touched, or anything rubs against the leaves where the powder is present, or when they are hit with a good blast from a strong jet spray, the waxy coating is readily and easily removed.

The waxy substance is chalk-like in substrance. I scraped off some of this wax along the back of a leaf with a toothpick. As I scraped along, gathering a small pile of the powdery white substance on the toothpick, I noticed little puffs of exploding dust being kicked up in front of the toothpick. It reminded me of chalkdust, and the vibration of the toothpick being scraped along was enough to set this dust free, into small cloudbursts of very fine wax powder.

I then placed a narrow line of this collected dust on my index finger, and rubbed my thumb and forefinger together. The white powder did not melt away or disappear as I had thought it might. In fact, instead of disappearing, the line of powder remained where it had been placed, caught in place between the ridges of the whorls and grooves of my fingerprint.

And it is that property of the powdery wax, that seems to gum up the suction cups and fine microscopic gripping hairs of the flies trying to escape the watery bowels of the Catopsis trap. My observations of fruit flies trying to escape fom the main bowl was that they seemed to have a very hard time getting their front two feet to grasp onto anything, except for the loose, breaking away and ever-coating wax.

dvg
 
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