Drosophyllum Rising

[dvg]

I had a chance to try Drosophyllum lusitanicum aka the dewy pine or Portuguese Sundew from seed, another carnivorous plant i'd like to add to my collection.

This is a pic of the first one to germinate.

A few days later it had grown a bit more...

Today i hand fed the largest seedling some springtails...hope it doesn't get indigestion from this appetizer...

It's interesting how these seedlings tend to escape from their seeds, almost in a Harry Houdini-like manner.

They send down their radical root and then with their two cotyledon leaves still 'handcuffed' inside the seed, they work on freeing their true leaves.

It almost looks like a green alien trying to extricate its octipus-like tentacle while its arms are still caught in its space pod...obviously a very adept contortionist with this maneuver.

Here is the second largest seedling, with it's arms still caught in the pod.

Once those arms are free, you bugs better beware, cuz it'll only have eyes for you...

dvg

 

[SuperHot]

It would be cool someday to see the collection all together!!

 

[PepperJam]

Wow that is amazing, plants with tentacles ... what is that medium they are sitting in? rocks?

 

[wrightdaddy]

Awesome. Nice pics

 

[dvg]

Thanks for the comments.

Wow that is amazing, plants with tentacles ... what is that medium they are sitting in? rocks?

PJ, that's a top layer of quartz sand, but underneath there is a mostly mineral mix of pumice, lava rock, silica sand, kanuma, akadama clay, chunky perlite and a tiny bit of peat.


dvg

 

[Emu]

That's a neat looking plant! How big do they get?

 

[dvg]

That's a neat looking plant! How big do they get?

Hi Emu,

The leaves can grow from 8 to 16 inches in length, and though this plants has been reported to grow up to 5 feet tall in habitat, the usual height is probably only about 16 inches tall for this one.

Here is good link, if any of you are interested in doing a bit a more reading up on this rather unique carnivorous plant species...

http://bestcarnivorousplants.com/Drosophyllum_lusitanicum.htm

dvg

 

[Emu]

Very interesting! It's cool how it is one of the more successful carnivorous plants. It doesn't need any fancy water pot or spring-trap mechanism- it's just sticky. And 'slobbering pine' is the funniest nickname for a plant I've ever seen!

 

[Dibs]

Thanks for sharing this interesting species with us. I have a question for you dvg since ive seen a couple of your threads with carnivorous plants, and i hope im not hijacking in any way.

I just got some seeds in the mail I bought on ebay, some succulents to be exact and there was an extra baggie labled D.Lanata. The only thing that pops up when i search is Drosera lanata. Does this species sound familiar?