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U. alpina

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What shape are the tubers: round, triangular, tubular, rhizome like? Does the tuber appear to be the main stalk of the root system or are they sticking off the main root system as a seperate entity? From your description it sounds like you are describing the creeping stolon from the soil surface. This is not a tuber.

If you will PM me the name of the place you got it I may be able to tell you whether they're really selling U. alpina. Because as I say, I've been burned plenty of times on this plant myself.  
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Swords,

He got the plant from me and I received it from purplesundew, who is no longer here. The tubers I see are off of the main root (not part of), but they are somewhat elongated. The alpina ones are roundish, is this correct?

You state that the leave begin in a furled up "Y", is this correct? If so, my 'plant that came as alpina' does not do that. Those that received this plant from me (I think there are three) please PM. I will attempt to get this plant and will get some to you asap.
 
I too think these plants look like longifolia and my longifolia plants have a trendancy to make plantlets on their leaf tips from time to time. Dodec is quite correct that the best way to tell these plants apart is by looking at new leaves. Looking at the pictures I don't see any thing that resembles the "rolled" embryonic leaf of a typical alpina. That plant labled alpina also seems a bit too dense for alpina, in my experience alpina tends to have its leaves all spread out. Swords also makes a good point that the leaves on alpina are very tough and leathery in feel.
 
Taylor certainly makes comment in his monograph about the difficulty telling U. alpina from small U. longifolia. If it has tubers though it shouldn't be U. longifolia. So if it does indeed have tubers which should be hard to confuse with underground stolons from U. longifolia.. What the _- is it?? lol

Copper I don't think you need to go trying to replace plants or anything. Utricularia are perplexing at times. I think everyone understands that. Will be really interesting to see what it looks like when it flowers
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Tony
 
My guess is that it will look like U. longifolia.  

Here are some tubers of U. alpina:

Utricularia_alpina_tubers.thumb.jpg


I agree with Tony, no need to sweat it if it turns out to be U. longifolia. Mistakes in ID are part of life, and if I know you Copper, the price was right!
 
Here is a blurry pic of some alpina that I received from Copper. I will try and take a clear pic tomorrow when I have better lighting.

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Ah, there is the third one. I know mistakes happen, but these three were part of a trade. Besides I like to share. At least I have an important lesson learned. I will always warn the receivers that a plant has not flowered and not positively ID'd (or be patient). Thank you Swords, they have it.
 
Copper,

I received some U. "alpina" from you as well. I thought they looked similar to the U. longifolia that were growing in the adjacent pot. Since I didn't have the U. longifolia that long, and the U. "alpina" were still acclimating, I didn't mention the similarities.
 
Yes, no one needs ever be embarassed about making ID errors, or mentioning them when they are noticed. This is a cuurtesy that we grant to each other, and all part of being a good CPer. It's what makes Forums like this so valuable: we can keep things straight with some good communication.
 
WOW! How long is it before the tubers start to look like that!?  I haven't seen my plant unpotted since it was a tiny quarter sized clump of stolons and single leaf last May. Might my plant have tubers like that by now? It gets good urea free orchid fertilizer mist every few weeks and is growing very thick and will need to be repotted by summer. I'm just wondering if I can expect something that large? I'll bet I would have freaked out if I dug into the clump and found some eyeball sized things!
EEEEEEEIIIIIIIII!!!  
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By the way, I have read that U. alpina goes dormant. What needs to happen? Do I have to induce dormancy or will the plant suddenly "die back" on it's own? My U. calycifida (thanks Tamlin!) has gone dormant by itself in September after nonstop blooms since last spring but it was a much older/larger plant. I have kept the Utrics in the highland chamber which is cool and wet and bright year round but I presume that U. alpina would like to go dry and maybe also warm up a little for dormancy?
 
I talked with another person who has the plant in question from purplesundew and from the sound of it it is alpina. He says that all new growth unfurls like a fern leaf and that the leaves are obviously thicker and more rigid than longifolia. So maybe this alpina form just has oddly tapered leaves as opposed to the broader ones Dodec and I are used to
 
Well, if it is I will now have both forms. It's on its way. I will still wait for the flower. Could it possibly be a hybrid?
 
As far as I know, hybrid utrics are even rarer than the species. I have not heard of any hybrids with longifolia.
 
There are hybrid Utrics out there and most of them are from the tropical forms but they are very hard to get a hold of so I highly doubt that anyone is passing them around. My guess is that it is just a form that differs from the conventional one. That isn't too odd, I have 5 forms of longifolia and all of them have different leaf apperances
 
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