Rainbows in the Midwest

[hcarlton]

I never did start an official thread for Byblis here, so I decided it was time to do so. I have 3 species now growing for me.
B. liniflora has always been steady for me. I have to resow seeds every 8-12 months or so, but I always have a good half dozen or more in the pot
B. liniflora by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
B. rorida Lake Campion is one of the two new species. It was the last to sprout, but bigger than the other species now and growing fast
B. rorida Lake Campion by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
B. guehoi Kimberley sprouted sooner, but has been slower in getting going. Now at least 4 seedlings have taken off and are doing well
B. guehoi Kimberleys by hawken.carlton, on Flickr

It will be great to finally have multiple species growing at the same time to compare them, and if I'm lucky I can see if I can cross them and see what happens.
~hcarlton

 

[DragonsEye]

Lovely, Carlton! Had several of these pop up amongst some Utrics I received in trade. Lost most of them, unfortunately. Keep having issues with the branches withering away.

 

[hcarlton]

Couple more shots of the new species. They are turning out to be very fast growers, at least on par with if not faster than liniflora
The largest B. rorida Lake Campion is reaching 3" high now, and there are some new sprouts in the pot
B. rorida Lake Campion by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
B. guehoi Kimberleys are still behind, but catching up
B. guehoi Kimberleys by hawken.carlton, on Flickr

 

[bluemax]

Very cool. It is nice to see the progress of the different species. I think that people who have never seen Byblis in the flesh may not always see the appeal but once you have you realize that these plants have big charisma. They are much less sundew-like than they appear from photos, though just why is hard to put your finger on.

 

[sflynn]

Very interesting and pretty, I got seeds of the rorida and guehoi too, I need to plant them already. What soil mix did you use and did you pre-treat the seeds to help in germination, Thanks!

 

[hcarlton]

bluemax: yeah, they're nothing like sundews, and you're also right in that you can't tell very well until you grow them. save for the flowers, which are wholly unique...

sflynn: all Byblis seeds need (or in the case of liniflora do better) with some sort of pre-treatment to sprout. B. liniflora you can soak in water for 20-40 min to get the inhibitor out, for the others I use a 10% bleach solution until the seed coats JUST start to turn grey. Don't wait any longer or you'll dissolve the embryo too. For soil, I use a mix of near-equal parts of sphagnum, peat moss and perlite (sand works too). Nothing else have I been able to keep Byblis alive on. You might have seen posts by Cindy in Singapore, her soil mixes are similar.

 

[hcarlton]

One very large B. liniflora
B. liniflora by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
And it's flowering, soon to be followed by at least 2-3 others
B. liniflora by hawken.carlton, on Flickr

The B. rorida are still growing upward, but the leaves aren't getting any longer.... I attribute it currently to cool temperatures.
Meanwhile, the B. guehoi are gaining size rapidly....
B. guehoi by hawken.carlton, on Flickr

 

[GROWTOPIA]

they dont look like rainbows

 

[w03]

Very nice Byblis; I've heard of using 10% bleach to leach out the inhibitor, but I never knew that water worked for B. liniflora as well.

growtopia: The common name is "rainbow plant", which is what the thread title comes from. If sunlight shines across them at a certain angle, it can produce a small "rainbow". (Though the same effect can be seen with almost any wet surface with droplets on it).

 

[Dexenthes]

Excellent plants. I still have never grown this genus. You're making it look real easy though!

 

[hcarlton]

They are rather easy (at least the species I've tried so far). Though if the B. rorida is any indication, very warm temps are appreciated.....

 

[hcarlton]

At least 2 of the B. guehoi are fast growers
B. guehoi by hawken.carlton, on Flickr

 

[hcarlton]

This is the biggest I think I've ever gotten my B. liniflora. Most are flowering and setting seed now too
B. liniflora by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
B. liniflora by hawken.carlton, on Flickr
And of comparable size to the smaller liniflora but seemingly a long way to go before maturity (at just what size do these guys start branching?), at least 2 of the B. guehoi are going strong. The other two are lagging behind somewhat.
B. guehoi by hawken.carlton, on Flickr

 

[SnapTrap23]

Have you ever tried the bleach method? I successfully started B. liniflora with such technique I never knew if it was truly necessary....

 

[Joseph Clemens]

You may be referring to this thread.

I initially made that observation, in the late 1980's, while I was experimenting with growing various CP in sterile media. The Byblis liniflora seed didn't actually need the treatment in order to germinate, but the treatment did speed up the process of germination. i always wondered if this process would expedite the germination of more difficult to germinate species, such as Byblis gigantea, but, I have not yet obtained any such seed, to test it on.

 

[hcarlton]

I used the bleach method on both the B. rorida and B. guehoi. B. liniflora I just soak in water for ~20 minutes, which removes a great deal of the inhibiting factor in the seed coat much like bleach does in the other species. Without bleach, I had no success with the two less common species.

 

[Cindy]

@hcarlton

Hi, your B. guehoi plants would need a larger pot. If you don't want to risk losing all the plants to repotting, then there is likely to be 1-2 adult plants left in the end. I was advised by Isao-san on ICPS forum to plant one plant per 5"-7" pot (or at most 2 plants) and IME is true - the larger tropical species don't like another planted too close to them in the same pot. I've kept up to 15 B. liniflora plants in one pot but with B. filifolia and B. guehoi, a bunchful of them ends up dead as soon as the roots start crowding in the same pot.

 

[hcarlton]

Unfortunately I am somewhat limited in space, the cup they are in is the biggest thing I can fit in that space. And it's deeper than a lot of the other pots I use and they have continued growing steady thus far, so if nothing else it will be a test to see how long they'll grow together. And, if all else fails I always have more seeds to work with.

 

[larry]

Are theses plants rare in cultivation now? They seemed to be common a few years ago, now I have problems finding seeds for sale at a reasonable price.

 

[hcarlton]

B. liniflora is relatively common (and I always have seeds), but the others have never been terribly plentiful.