Tag Archives: Carnivorous Plant

Stickin' out…

Posted on November 4, 2010 | 2 comments

When breeding, I’ve found that one will encounter a lot of genetic variations. Variants in all Shapes. Size. Colors. Shape. Smell. Feel. Maybe taste.

While doing some sorting in the yard, one of the seedlings really stuck out apart from its siblings.  S. catesbaei “Flying Nun” x “Red Blush” (cross by Brooks Garcia) is the cross pictured below, 2 years old from seed. You can see that in the sea of red, one plant is coming up yellowish.  The one in the center and the yellowish one on the upper right hand third of the photo are pitchers of the same seedling.  The rest of the group is red.  Ah genetics… interesting stuff indeed.

 

S. Catesbaei "Flying Nun" x "Red Blush"[Sarracenia catesbaei “Flying Nun” x “Red Blush”]

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New Season

Posted on October 31, 2010 | Leave a comment

What?! November already?! Where has this year gone? Halloween is now over,  Thanksgiving around the corner… wow.  Plants are preparing for sleep, or already are asleep.   There are still a few of those late season plants that look great, but now as I look out across the collection, the dried pitchers are making themselves more evident signifying the change of season deep upon us.  This also means a lot of pitcher clean up for me in the *very* near coming future. 🙂

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Leucophylla Baby

Posted on October 26, 2010 | 2 comments

I was sick yesterday and today and this afternoon I finally managed to gather enough strength to go out and replenish my soul by spending time with the plants. One of the seedlings that caught my eye today was this S. leucophylla seedling. This was a seed grown plant that I recevied as seed on October 23, 2008.  Nearly two years later, this is what it looks like.  The cross was done by my friend Wes Buckner and is the result of crossing two very nice leucophylla parents from the same location (Franklin County, Florida, the parent plants were denoted by “A” and “B”.) Thanks Wes!

 

S. leucophylla, Franklin A x leucophylla, Franklin B[Sarracenia leucophylla, Franklin County “A”, x leucophylla, Franklin County “B”]

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Species

Posted on October 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

Back to basics, shall we?

Sarracenia species.  Below you’ll find the cornerstones of what the hybrids are built upon.  I’ve recently been even more appreciative of the species; probably due to the hybrid madness that’s going on with me right now. I love the complexities, the various breeding combinations, and the whole roll-of-the-dice that you get when breeding plants.  You never know what you’ll get! Patience required, but hybridizing is very awesome indeed.

That said, I’ve been only breeding/hybridizing for the past 2-3 years.  I’m just starting and am only just starting to see some of my work come to fruition.  All of this crossing, combining, creative madness has gotten me to really appreciate the species so much, and to realize the importance of preserving them.

Below are a few photos of the species and a listing of their subspecies/variations.  Keep in mind, that even within species, there is much diversity in color, shape, and size.  The photos below are for illustrative purposes to give you a very general feel/sense of what each of these species is all about.  Taxonomy for the plants are debated in some cases (depending on who you talk or argue with) — but for now, I’ll try to keep it simple… 🙂


[Sarracenia alata: Pale Pitcher Plant]

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[Sarracenia flava : Yellow pitcher plant]

– Sarracenia flava var. atropurpurea

– Sarracenia flava var. cuprea

-Sarracenia flava var. maxima

– Sarracenia flava var. ornata

-Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora

-Sarracenia flava var. rugelii

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[Sarracenia leucophylla: White pitcher plant]

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[Sarracenia minor : Hooded pitcher plant]

-Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis

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[Sarracenia oreophila : Green pitcher plant]

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[Sarracenia psittacina : Parrot pitcher plant]

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[Sarracenia purpurea : Purple pitcher plant]

-Sarracenia purpurea subsp. purpurea

-Sarracenia purpurea subsp. purpurea f. heterophylla

-Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venosa : Southern pitcher plant

-Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venosa var. burkii

-Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venosa var. burkii f. luteola

-Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venosa var. montana

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[Sarracenia rubra : Sweet pitcher plant]

-Sarracenia rubra subsp. alabamensis : Alabama pitcher plant

-Sarracenia rubra subsp. gulfensis : Gulf coast pitcher plant

-Sarracenia rubra subsp. jonesii

-Sarracenia rubra subsp. wherryi : Red pitcher plant

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Livin' on the Edge

Posted on October 18, 2010 | 2 comments


[Sarracenia ‘Alucard’ and future meal, livin’ on the edge…]

I don’t really got to say much here, but man… that fly really is livin’ on the edge (not for long though…)

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Hummingbird extraction

Posted on October 11, 2010 | 2 comments

Hello out there y’all. I took a few days off and was out of town in beautiful Lake Tahoe for a few days. It was nice to get away from the office for once and just enjoy air and light. And trees. And lake.

Just wanted to share what happened today in the greenhouse… it’s not really too Sarracenia related, but it was pretty fascinating anyway.

I got back into the garden today and managed to get some work done. I was sorting some Sarracenia seedlings out, and was repotting a few others plants just to make some more room.  When I walked into there of the greenhouse where I let the seedlings grow up a bit, I was surprised to find a hummingbird stuck!  I guess it was the flowering Pinguiculas that attracted it. Nice to observe the hummingbird at such a close distance, but the bird could not find it’s way out no matter how much I tried to urge it towards the door.  Now, I have some chickenwire to support the woven polycarbonate roof, and the bird kept flying into it and at times would get a little trapped then wriggle free again. It kept wanting to fly up and out — and kept hitting the wire ceiling.  Geez… Poor thing.  The opening to the greenhouse I have is *much* lower than the ceiling height, so regardless of what I did to to try to get it out, it would not fly out of the door.  My vents are covered with a screen as well, so no way of it escaping that way.  So… in order for it to leave and be set free, I had to take the situation in my own hands. Literally.

Hummingbird[Hummingbird stuck in the greenhouse. I wonder if the hanging Drosera’s thought it was a meal?…]


[Gotcha!  My greenhouse is not the place for you, homie. You could become lunch for one of my plants!  Time to go, lil’ buddy…]

Hummingbird[I let go outdoors right after this photo. I actually felt a hummingbirds heartbeat today… ]

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Alien!

Posted on October 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

Today a co-worker of mine was telling me about some news story she heard about with a UFO sighting in Mongolia… or somfin’ like that… (I guess the story was like… from today, and news clips could be found on places like this…)

But anyway, the whole UFO/alien thing reminded me of one of the plants growin’ out here that I think showed up after UFO’s invaded my grow area or something.  One of the alien dudes were left behind. So I potted it up… Some lime green weird looking Sarracenia-iod-ish type plant from the planet Triffid. Or something…

Actually, it’s just a Sarracenia flava x psittacina. Heh heh. But still, looks pretty durn funny to me – like it just walked out of a space ship or something. 🙂

flavaxpsit1[Sarracenia flava x psittacina – Take me to your leader!]

flavaxpsit2[Sarracenia flava x psittacina]

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