Winter leaves - are they really non-trapping?

[Joseph Clemens]

Ever since I first heard about "winter" leaves on Mexican Pings being non-carnivorous and without trapping glands I have been searching for these elusive leaves.

Below is a recent image of a Pinguicula 'Titan' with winter growth as an example. It seems easy to see that the leaves are still glandular. All of my Mexican Pings appear to maintain some degree of glandular trapping even in their "winter" leaves, the exception being the ones that go "underground".

 

[Cindy]

PingMan, what's the medium for the P.titan? Thanks.

 

[Joseph Clemens]

This particular Pinguicula 'Titan' is growing in a 2" rose pot, the kind that is fairly tall. There is a small amount of redwood bark in the bottom of the pot to hold in the media which is 100% peat moss and the top of the pot is covered with 1/4 inch of coarse silica sand.

 

[Vic Brown]

Joseph,

I thought P. 'Titan' was supposed to form a buried hibernaculum beneath the soil during winter, like P. macrophylla, which is thought to be a likely candidate for the pollen parent, see for details; P. 'Titan'.

So perhaps the smaller leaves are still transitional between the summer leaves and the hibernaculum, rather than true winter, succulent leaves. Looking at some of my plants which have already formed tight succulent rosettes of winter leaves, I can't see any obvious sticky glands on P. crassifolia or P. conzattii and on my P. laueana plants, the winter leaves are covered in hairs (a dew collecting adaptation?) rather than carnivorous glands. After a record breaking hot and sunny summer in the UK, we are now back to more typical grey skies. When the sun next pops out, I'll try and take close-up pictures to show what I mean.

Vic

 

[wickedthistle]

Here's my p.esseriana from last winter. The leaves got longer and skinnier, the glands disappeared, the hair lessened, and the plant leaf became waxy. A few weeks after this picture was taken, it was completely hairless and shiny/waxy.

 

[LOs Angels Traphole]

Hello,

Are your Titan's flower really fragrant? If so how fragrant? and what is the scent comparable to?

 

[Joseph Clemens]

I'm remiss, I have not checked out their fragrance. None are in bloom now, but buds are growing. I will check that out as soon as they open.