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I thought I would add a post on this species, as I have not seen much about it on this forum. I do not know that much about this species which comes from the Aru Islands which are just off the southern part of West Papua. Apart from this young flowering plant I have over 20 small plants which I grew from seed planted in Feb.2014 from seed sent to me by fellow member Rita Kupke. I have found this a very easy to grow and quite distinctive species. I believe it is also very prolific in its fruiting. It would be good if anyone could add some more information on this species.

 

 

 

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Hydnophytum simplex with a75mm caudex flowering for the first time.

 

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A closer view of the flower.

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Robert:

I agree that this is a great species that has proven very popular in cultivation around the world. It has a couple drawbacks for some growers, one of which is that it does not look very happy when it is cool and dry (Aru Island is at six degrees L south and does not have much elevation to it), and the other is its imposing height when left unpruned. Frank Omilian grew a specimen to a rather surprising height at his home before moving it to a greenhouse a few years back. Perhaps he can post recent photos of that plant here to give people an idea of what an adult specimen looks like. The caudex, which is so appealing in youth, looking like it's fashioned from green plastic or wax, does become dark with age.

Berries are quite small and dark red on my plants. The foliage is very reminiscent of some types of citrus and, in my experience, is prone to deformities if not grown under optimum conditions. I believe that all captive plants are descendants of material held at Leiden. It would be great if we could get the accession data from someone who has contacts with that BG.

J

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Stone Jaguar

 

I was surprised to hear that this species is regarded as being cold sensitive, as I grow this species in an open shade house which has a partial cover fitted only for winter. Last July (mid winter) two cold fronts caused night temperatures to dip under 10oC (50oF) for a total of 16 nights in total, and no leaves of any of my ant plants were dropped. This included 24 H.simplex seedling which were 4.5 months old at the time, all 24 are now 13 months old. Temperature recovery is quite rapid though in the mornings, with average maximums under the partial cover being just over 25oC for July. Growth rate of these seedlings slowed to a crawl in mid winter but did not stop, perhaps the fact that these plants are growing under fairly strong natural light gives them the vigour to handle a bit more cold.

 

Robert

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Bonjour

 

I have an adult and a lot of juvenils  , very easier to grow in my  terra  with 2 stem to 100 cm .

 

it flowers and fruits regularly.

 

Their drupes are  orange-red close enough in shape and size as those of  H. formicarum

 

JEFF

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Robert:

I think that you are correct in identifying rapid warm up during daylight hours to near preferred levels as being key to these plants not defoliating during cool spells. When we experience cold nights both in highland Guatemala and north-central California, the days that follow are generally cool as well. Keeping them in warm, bright greenhouses with nighttime lows above 10 C and daytime temps between 25 and 29 C definitely keeps them happier and faster growing than letting them cool down too much at night and early morning.

H. simplex seems to produce deformed leaves quite consistently when grown in suboptimal environments...H. sp. "Needle Leaf" prefers to just shed its leaves when stressed.

Cheers,

J

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I agree that this is a great species that has proven very popular in cultivation around the world. It has a couple drawbacks for some growers, one of which is that it does not look very happy when it is cool and dry (Aru Island is at six degrees L south and does not have much elevation to it), and the other is its imposing height when left unpruned. Frank Omilian grew a specimen to a rather surprising height at his home before moving it to a greenhouse a few years back. Perhaps he can post recent photos of that plant here to give people an idea of what an adult specimen looks like. The caudex, which is so appealing in youth, looking like it's fashioned from green plastic or wax, does become dark with age.

 

Jay mentions that I have grown a large plant of Hydnophytum simplex.  Twice I grew plants with 8 to 9 inch diameter caudexes in a grow chamber under lights.  Each plant had stems slightly over a yard long (a meter in length).  This got them too big for the chamber.  I moved them to a greenhouse and both rotted from the base within months.  Unfortunately I never took full plant photos of either at their largest.  Here is a photo of one when it was in a 3 inch pot with the great green color:  The next photo is the same plant with mature caudex color when it was in an 8 inch pot.  And a full plant photo when it was in the 8 inch pot.  It died when it was in a 10 inch pot.

 

The last photo is my current largest H. simplex growing in the Y crotch of a Tamarind tree in the University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Garden.  The caudex is over 5 inches across.  It was placed on the tree in December 2010 as a small plant from a 2-1/2 inch pot.

 

Hydnophytum simplex was described and named by Odoardo Beccari in his publication Malesia II.  His description there gives no size indication for the caudex or stems. 

 

Anyone else grown large plants of H. simplex?

 

 

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