I've grown to love Mexican and other tropical Pinguicula. Here is another fascinating species: Pinguicula cyclosecta.
When I first began to grow this species I used 100% granulated sphagnum peat moss. It could work well, but always quickly deteriorated in my conditions -->
The white spots on the media surface are where mineral salts have precipitated/crystallized into hard lumps.
This is the same group of plants in bloom -->
By this time mosses have colonized the exposed peat surface, and the blossoms are blocking some light from the plants leaves.
In each image you can see small plantlets emerging from beneath the adult plants. Apparently older leaves, as they senesce, sometimes produce plantlets, these plantlets grow their way out from beneath the parent plants canopy.
All of the plants shown in this post are clones of the same original plant, propagated by leaf-pullings.
This photo shows how, depending on their growing conditions, can remain small (and still bloom). These are planted in a mixture of pumice and sphagnum peat moss -->
They grow well for me when I keep them close under fluorescent lighting, frequently feed with dried insect dust, and keep wet 24/7/365. These are planted in all mineral media mixtures of silica sand, coral sand, iron oxide, and ceramic granules -->
And they can tolerate fairly long periods of time completely dry, as long as they still have lots of strong light -->
This last image is of plants that have been dry for approximately eighteen months.
When I first began to grow this species I used 100% granulated sphagnum peat moss. It could work well, but always quickly deteriorated in my conditions -->
The white spots on the media surface are where mineral salts have precipitated/crystallized into hard lumps.
This is the same group of plants in bloom -->
By this time mosses have colonized the exposed peat surface, and the blossoms are blocking some light from the plants leaves.
In each image you can see small plantlets emerging from beneath the adult plants. Apparently older leaves, as they senesce, sometimes produce plantlets, these plantlets grow their way out from beneath the parent plants canopy.
All of the plants shown in this post are clones of the same original plant, propagated by leaf-pullings.
This photo shows how, depending on their growing conditions, can remain small (and still bloom). These are planted in a mixture of pumice and sphagnum peat moss -->
They grow well for me when I keep them close under fluorescent lighting, frequently feed with dried insect dust, and keep wet 24/7/365. These are planted in all mineral media mixtures of silica sand, coral sand, iron oxide, and ceramic granules -->
And they can tolerate fairly long periods of time completely dry, as long as they still have lots of strong light -->
This last image is of plants that have been dry for approximately eighteen months.
