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Forum for Epiphytic Myrmecophytes

Stone Jaguar

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Everything posted by Stone Jaguar

  1. Aurélien: Like you and others here I have always wondered why H&J opted for this treatment of the tuberosa group, rather than just gave them the same subspecific ranking that they gave for others in the monograph, e.g. platytyrea and schlechteri. While I find the ochlospecies concept very interesting, it seems that major characters that are used to segregate other Myrmecodia species from one another are "lumped" into the tuberosa group rather haphazardly. Thus, plants can be cleistogamous or heterostylous, inermous or heavily armed with root spines (simple or complex), possess or lack persistent stipules and/or clypeoli, have alveoli conspicuously filled with extruded bracts or not, have ripe fruits yellow, yellow-orange, reddish-orange or ruby-red, have erect or pendent growth habits, etc. I suspect that morework will reveal that some of the varieties in the nothern part of the range are probably good subspecies or regionally-distinct ecotypes of tuberosa, while others in New Guinea and elsewhere that veer farther away from the armata-types are probably quite good "species". J
  2. Derrick: Great photos, as always. I am not a huge fan of fruit color as a diagnostic, since it seems to vary quite a bit in cultivation between individuals, seasons and varying cultural regimens. The two notable exceptions to this are Myrmecodia beccarii and M. tuberosa 'papuana' from Oz since they are very stable, IME, but even they can show some variation in intensity. Also, without a uniform color template, one man's "orange" is another man's "dark orange" or "red". If these are indeed 'papuana' your images suggest that demes or specific ecotypes can see notable variation in fruit color, even when fairly proximate to others. I thought 'papuana' had fairly conspicuous stipules on newer stem growth. Did you get any images of flowers? J
  3. I wonder whether someone simply transposed "flowers white" with "fruits white". I believe that H&J have a report of Myrmecodia beccarii with pink fruit in their monograph...Mr. Murphy lurks eternal. J
  4. Hi, Derrick. Do you have access to the type material sheets on this to check collector notes? Do you know whether Forster collected and examined living material or described it exclusively from dried herbarium specimens? I suspect it's a simple mistake that may be attributed to an immature (green) fruit. While obviously I am aware that one of Australia's Myrmecodia spp. is very much THE odd man out with regard to white fruit color, I have never seen anything lighter than very pale yellow in Hydnophytum spp. ripe fruit. If the plants we are growing are not H. ferrugineum, then there appears to be an undescribed/previously unreported species (this one) in the southern part of the Iron Range NP, since these plants most definitely aren't H. moseleyanum. Cheers, J
  5. Thanks. The plant shown above is almost five years old from seed. These were very slow for the first several years. They have only started growing faster when I moved them to a warm greenhouse this year. Still no entrance holes on either of the larger plants I have. J
  6. This very attractive northeastern Australian species is not in wide cultivation yet and is rare outside of Australian collections. Robert Pulvirenti has shown images here of his plants being grown in Queensland. The larger of my seed-grown plants has just begun to flower and fruit, so I thought forum members might find it interesting to see images of this species in fruit taken early last month. Plant is in 15 cm basket for reference. Quite slow growing until this year. It seems to thrive with warm-hot temperatures coupled with lots of moisture. I posted an image of this plant in March in the thread on H. ferrugineum. In the intervening six months the plant and its sibling have bulked up quite a bit, but still do not show entry holes. The fruit is distinctive; almost striped on close examination, tip brown, two large seeds. Rita Kupke, a Queensland forum member who has a great deal of success with this species, confirms this is normal coloration for ripe H. ferrugineum fruit. Seed germinated immediately when cleaned and sowed. Cheers, J
  7. Andreas: My observations of my plants in a perhumid/cloud forest greenhouse versus those grown in an adjacent standard well-vented stovehouse here have convinced me that the proliferation of adventitious roots in plants being grown in a mist-laden environment is very much evidence that these roots capture ambient moisture very effectively. I have seen several young hydnos literally "bristle" with newly-emergent, quite long roots on their caudexes since being moved to the most humid parts of the greenhouse over the past month. Aurelien, yes I'm definitely starting to see epiphylls (in the form of mosses, filmy ferns and other fern sporelings) growing on some of my epiphytic hydnophytines here Cheers all, J
  8. Haha!! At this point, I could hardly forget this "passionate grower in Germany"!! Kinda hoping that one of my ferrugineum gets with the program, too...still no flowers. You will certainly be the first to know J
  9. Andreas: It has only set a few fruit over the past years that I did not harvest, so I suppose "rarely" is the case with it. Hopefully, this year I will obtain some fruit from this flowering cycle. J
  10. This plant is from a mixed batch of seeds that I received from Pinoy Plants in mid-2006. This plant is being grown in California, but I have several others in Guatemala. It seems to be rather slow growing when compared to other Hydnophytum spp. that I cultivate. It has a very interesting and distinctive form with large, slot-like entry holes concentrated on one end of a somewhat elongate caudex that is a common feature to all of these plants that I have. Algal/moss growth on the caudex is a byproduct of very high relative humidity in the cool tropical greenhouse that it's located in. While the plant flowers fairly well at this time of year it has so far refused to fruit reliably so may require manual pollination. As is evident in the first image, the canopy is extremely "bushy" when the plant is unstressed. Ciao, J
  11. Andreas: What a striking plant!! I suspect that it is many decades old. While the leaves are quite distinct (being sub-orbicular), the swirling ridges on the caudex remind me of the Hydnophytum formicarum that I grow from seed that I obtained several years ago from Merlin Sy, reportedly from Quezon. Here is an old image of a caudex from that population that is quite a bit smaller (~12 cm diameter) than the one shown above, but that shares the "pumpkin" form and dark color with the Mindanao specimen. J
  12. Andreas: No, not "Goose". I think this is one of the other sp. collected at same site. "Yes" I think it's the FB plant on mangroves. I will PM you pics of what I think is mother on Monday. Based on that image, it should self vigorously. IMO, perfectly good sp., just not what Frank and I grow. Fantastic bit of luck. At end of day, if both sides get seed, better still!! I have just re-examined Frank's images and am suddenly struck that it is indeed a different plant from mine. This would clearly explain the differences in type of floral heterostyly we have observed in our respective plants as we attempt to polllinate them. J
  13. Derrick: It's a wide world out there beyond the Yucatán Peninsula. I am familiar with several of the taxa discussed by Carnevalli, et. al. at both inland and coastal sites of Guatemala, México and Belize. IMO, there are two very distinct species (Myrmecophila exaltata and M. brysiana) occurring in coastal areas of the Caribbean lowlands of this area that hybridize promiscuously, producing a hybrid swarm that is remarkably like M. tibicinis as we traditionally conceived of it. There are also populations from inland forests, mainly in riparian habitats that may or not fall into either M. christinae or M. tibicinis. I think there needs to be a lot more work on this genus in Mesoamerica as a whole before we conclude exactly where the taxonomic boundaries lie. I do however disagree vehemently with orchid researchers who do not recognize M. exaltata as a valid species. For what it's worth, I believe that RBG Kew currently recognizes it as a valid species as well (The Plant List 2012). The core populations located near sea level in the lower Polochic valley of Depto. Izabal, Guatemala are quite distinctive with large numbers of showy purple and white flowers with tightly-enclosed columns on extremely long, erect peduncles. These plants are located some ways west of the type locality at Livingston at the mouth of Río Dulce (collected by Ulmcke in 1925; the holotype was apparently lost during the war which always complicates later debates). As you move eastwards along the shores of Lago de Izabal towards the Caribbean, putative intergrades with M. brysiana begin to appear alongside "pure" M. exaltata, showing varying amounts of yellow and orange from that species, as well as starting to have much shorter peduncles with a noticeably lower flower count per inflorescence. J
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