NEWS

February Meeting

The topic plants for the February meeting were Venus flytraps and Sarracenia, two popular genera both beginner and experienced growers. While Dionaea is a monotypic genus, originating from a very restricted range in the Carolinas, a huge variety of plants of different shape, size and colour have been produced by breeding and selecting mutations in tissue culture and there were a lot of examples on the display from VFTs with giant traps like 'DCXL' and 'B52', to red forms like 'Akai Ryu', to oddities like 'Freaky Star', 'Chinese Dumpling' and 'Shell' with bizarrely shaped traps. Ron's VFT 'Waves' was voted VFT of the night. The edges of its traps were rippled with good red colouration inside the traps. 2nd place went to Ron's VFT 'Spider, with very long, thin petioles. Rons VFT 'Crocodile came in 3rd place. This is another unusual mutant with the edges of the petioles fusing directly to the trap, instead than narrowing to a thin stalk between the petiole the trap like most flytraps. Sarracenia consist of between 8-11 species depending on taxonomic opinions and grow naturally from Texas through the easter states of the US and into Canada, with several introduced populations growing in Western USA and Europe. The wide array of pitcher sizes and shapes produced by the different species has led to hybrids that range from elegant to grotesque. Jason's S. purpurea ssp. venosa var montana was won Sarracenia of the night. This is one of the showier purps seen in collections with the plants producing compact clumps of often heavily veined pitchers. We had two equal runners Steve's S. purpurea ssp venosa, relic plant from North Carolina and Jason's S. flava f. Red Tube x alata f Cut Throat, which produces tall upright pitchers with very good red colouration.


The plants benched at the July meeting included:

Heliamphora minor Sarracenia alabamensis x flava f Red Sarracenia alata Sarracenia flava f. Red Tube x alata f Cut Throat Sarracenia jonesii Sarracenia leucophylla Sarracenia minor Sarracenia popei Sarracenia psittacina Sarracenia purpurea ssp purpurea var heterophylla Sarracenia purpura var montana Sarracenia purpurea ssp purpurea Sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa VFT 'Akai Ryu' VFT 'AR Werewolf' VFT 'Big Teeth, Red Giant' VFT 'B52' VFT 'Bimbo' VFT 'Bloody Nurse' VFT 'Carboni Adente' VFT 'Creeping Death' x self VFT 'Chinese Dumpling' VFT 'Coquillage'

VFT 'Coquillage' x self VFT 'Crocodile' VFT 'Cupped Traps' VFT 'DCXL' VFT 'Fake Dracula' VFT 'Fang' VFT 'Freaky Star' VFT 'Fused Tooth' VFT 'G16' x 'G14' VFT ('G16' x 'G14') x 'Big Tomato' VFT 'Low Giant': produces prostrate traps. VFT 'Microdent' x self VFT 'Paradisia' VFT 'Peroscope' VFT 'Patches' VFT 'Slacks Giant' x self VFT 'Spider' VFT 'Shell' VFT 'Tall' VFT 'T-Rex' VFT 'Wine Mouth' VFT 'V38' VFT 'Waves'