NEWS

September Meeting

The topic plants for the September meeting were Cephalotus follicularis and the sub-carnivorous members of the bromeliad family. Cephalotus is a monotypic genus of pitcher plants that is restricted to the south west corner of Western Australia between Augusta and Cheynes Beach. They can be a challenging plant to grow well for people, often dying back for unexplained reasons. Ron's Cephalotus follicularis from Ledge Bay was voted Cephalotus of the night with another of his Ledge Bay plants getting 2nd place. Ron is growing these plants in a terrarium within a solarweave house. 3rd place went to Beryl's plant, which originally came from Collectors Corner.

Bromeliads are a very large family of predominantly New World plants. While not typically thought of as carnivorous, there are a few species that are considered protocarnivorous and are able to catch insects within their tanks to feed the plants. Donna's Brocchinia reducta and Andrew's Puya chilensis received the same number of votes for Bromeliad of the night. Brocchinia reducta is found in equatorial South America from Columbia to Guyana where populations are found growing on the Tepuis as well as lowland areas. Donna's Brocchinia was over twenty years old and the plant had several large growing points in it, a number of which were flowering. Puya chilensis comes from the Andes and has earned the nickname the sheep-eating plant as anecdotes suggest the hook-lined leaves snag and entangle sheep and other animals, which then become trapped, die and then fertilise the plant. Actual evidence for these anecdotes is scant and these stories mainly seem to be perpetuated whenever a botanical garden is publicising one in their plants in coming into flower. Andrew said this plant likes to be kept on the dry side and that it's very slow growing. 3rd place went to Peter's Catopsis berteroniana. Whereas the previous two species are terrestrial bromeliads, Catopsis berteroniana is epiphytic. Peter is growing this plant mounted on a tree branch reflecting its epiphytic habit and his plant is growing very well.

The plants benched at the September meeting included:

Brocchinia reducta Catopsis berteroniana Catopsis lutea Cephalotus follicularis Dionaea muscipula Drosera porrecta Drosera stolonifera Drosera stricticaulis Nepenthes izumiae Nepenthes minima

Nepenthes talengensis Pinguicula laueana Puya chilensis Sarracenia flava Sarracenia flava var atropurpurea hybrid Sarracenia psittacina var okefenokeensis f. luteoviridis Utricularia dichotoma ssp fontana Utricularia dichotoma var oppositiflora Utricularia livida

August Meeting

Show judging for the upright tuberous and winter growing Drosera was held at the August meeting. This judging category covers a very diverse group of tuberous sundews including those with erect, self-supporting stems, those with a climbing or scrambling habit and the fan-leaved sundews and as well as the summer-dormant southern African species, which die down to fleshy roots to survive the hot dry summers. These species are mostly dormant in December when we hold our annual show so judging these plants at the August meeting allows us to see them at their best.

First place was awarded to Steve's Drosera cistiflora from Stellenbosch in South Africa. This species produces lanceolate leaves along an upright stem and quite large flowers for the size of the plant. Steve's Drosera rupricola won second place. This is one of the fan leaved tuberous Drosera. Steve's pot contained a mixture of red and green plants that grow from seed that was produced by crossing the burgundy form of this species with one of the green forms. Third place went to Steve's Drosera graniticola. This species grown on rocky outcrops in the Western Australia's Western Mallee region. Interestingly its flowers stay open at night.

Amongst the non-topic plants brought into the August meeting, Justin's Nepenthes edwardsiana was voted non-topic plant of the night. This spectacular pitcher plant is endemic to Mount Kinabalu and Mount Tambuyukon in Borneo. Justin said it was quite slow growing. Second place went to Justin's Nepenthes singulana with Steve's Sarracenia alata var nigropurpurea coming in third place.

The plants benched at the August meeting included:

Dionaea muscipula Drosera auriculata Drosera cistiflora Drosera eremaea Drosera gigantea Drosera graniticola Drosera indumenta Drosera intricata Drosera peltata

Drosera playtopoda Drosera rupicola Drosera ramellosa Drosera macrantha Nepenthes tobaica Nepenthes edwardsiana Nepenthes singulana Sarracenia alata var nigropurpurea Utricularia warburgii

July Meeting

The propagation and repotting were the discussion topics for the July meeting. Most carnivorus plants can be propagated relatively easily using a variety of methods. Seed is generally a good way to propagate a range of carnivorous plants, especially for Drosera as many species can reach maturity within one or two years. Even for genera that mature more slowly, such and Sarracenia, Dionaea and Nepenthes, growing from seed can produce seedlings with a lot of unique and interesting variation. The VCPS has an extensive list of species and hybrid seed available from its Seedbank and is a great resource for both new and experienced members. For several species seed can be short-lived, difficult to produce or difficult to germinate so vegetative propagation is often an easier way to produce more plants. Furthermore, many varieties don't breed true from seed so vegetative methods are the only way to produce more plants.

Division probably the easiest method for plants that produce multiple growing points, such as the Sarracenaceae family of pitcher plants and Dionaea and for genera like Utricularia which form dense mats of stolons. Leaf and heal cuttings are usually easy ways to propagate many Pinguicula, Drosera, Cephalotus and Dionaea and generally large numbers of plants can be produced this way compared to division. Of course pygmy Drosera essentally reproduce this way by themselves by producing gemmae, which are modified lead buds. Root cuttings can also be used for Cephalotus and many Drosera and can produce mature plants faster than leaf cuttings. For Nepenthes the most comming method of propagation is via stem cuttings. While this can be done with varying levels of success depending on the species, cuttings with produce mature plants much faster than seed. For the potting demonstration Andrew repotted a large pot of Darlingtonia californica. This pitcher plant produces long stolons that form new plants at the end and when cut into pieces a few inches long can produce new plants from each cutting. Those people that attended the July meeting were given stolon cuttings to take home and pot up.

Show judging was also held for rosetted tuberous Dosera at the July meeting. Steve's Drosera browniana won first place. This is a pink flowered, Western Australian species that grows in shallow loam soils on granitic rock outcrops along the greenstone belt from Mt Holland to Hatters Hill. 2nd place went to Peter's Drosera aberrans, a plant that originated from a single tuber collected several decades ago from a private property in the Macedon area and has since multiplied to fill several pots. Steve's Drosera schmutzii was awarded 3rd place. This relative of Drosera whitakeri comes from Kangaroo Is. and produces leaf blades with long petioles compared to that species.

The plants benched at the July meeting included:

Drosera aberrans Drosera browniana Drosera erythrorhiza Drosera macrophylla Drosera praefolia Drosera schmutzii Drosera squamosa Drosera whittakeri Heliamphora pulchella

Nepenthes attenboroughii Nepenthes burkei Nepenthes nebularum Nepenthes villosa Pinguicula emarginata x Weser Sarracenia alata var atrorubra Sarracenia leucophylla Utricularia alpina Utricularia fulva

June Meeting

Our AGM was held at the June meeting. The 2023-2024 committee members can be found on the Committee page of our website. We would like to thank the outgoing committee for the work they've put into running the society. We would like to welcome Patrick Goggin to the committee, who will now be the prize organiser for our annual show.

Topic plants for the meeting were open to any genera. Kelly brought in a Pinguicula esseriana that was voted plant of the night. Several overseas growers use porous rocks, such as pumice, as mounts their Pinguicula as these rocks allow water to wick up to the plant's roots from a tray without saturating the root system. However, pumice and other suitably absorbant rocks are difficult to source in Victoria. As an alternative, Kelly's Pinguicula was growing on a ceramic Bakki rod, which is normally used as biomechanical filter media for aquarium filters and her plants looked very happy growing on it. Runner up plant of the night went to Sean's Utricularia menziesii, which was producing its distinctive red flowers. This is a Western Australian Utricularia species that dies back to rice-grain-sized tubers to survive over the dry summers. Steve's Nepenthes gymnophora was voted third place for plant of the night. This species comes from Java and Sumatra and can quite variable in colour. Steve's plant was producing quite dark mottled pitchers.

The plants benched at the June meeting included:

Drosera Andromeda Drosera browneana Drosera bulbosa Drosera esperensis Drosera liniflora Drosera magna Drosera planchonii Drosera praefolia Drosera rosulata

Drosera squamosa Drosera whittakeri Drosera zonaria Utricularia menziesii Nepenthes gymnophora Nepenthes singulana Nepenthes hybrid Pinguicula esseriana

May Meeting

The topic for the May meeting was growing conditions, and best and worst plants. This is always an interesting meeting as it gives members a chance to see which plants people are succeeding with as well as discuss plants that we have problems with so we can figure out if anything can be done to improve them. Several Nepenthes were brought along to the meeting including Ron's Nepenthes rajah which was growing well and producing 4-5 pitchers. This species produces some of the largest pitchers for the genus, however, it is very slow growing in cultivation and requires many years of patience before you'll see reasonable sized pitchers. Steve brought in a Nepenthes singulana, which had produced a large pitcher that had just opened in time for the meeting, and this plant was voted 3rd place plant of the night. Steve also brought in a Nepenthes talangensis that he was trying to propagate using by layering the stem in an air layering pod. Many Nepenthes species have a low strike rate from cuttings so Steve is hoping that keeping the stem attached to the main plant while it roots will improve his success rate. Sarracenia leucophylla puts up its best pitchers in autumn and a number of different examples of this species were brought in. Steve's Sarracenia leucophylla from Citronelle had produced 2 very tall pitchers and was voted 2nd place for plant of the night. Peter brought in his Pinguicula gypsicola x moctozumae that he brought in last meeting, which had now put up a flower. Ron also brought in several Drosera raised from seed including some Drosera regia that he had been fertilising with Osmocote for natives. He said fertilising these seedlings produced noticeably better growth. The meeting ended with a Nepenthes cutting night with Steve and David bringing in vining plants to cut up for other members. The society aiming to reinvigorate its sales bench and this is the first of several cutting and division sales nights that we plan to be hold over the coming months and hopefully repeat in future years. We encourage members looking to pick up a few interesting plants to add to their collections to come along to the meetings and see what the sales bench has to offer.


The plants benched at the May meeting included:

Cephalotus follicularis Dionaea muscipula "Coquillage" Drosera aberrans D capensis Drosera "Dork's Pink" Drosera platystigma Drosera roseana Drosera pygmae Drosera regia Drosera roseana Heliamphora chimantensis Heliamphora collina Heliamphora folliculata x ionasi Heliamphora huberi

Heliamphora nutans Nepenthes albomarginata Nepenthes attenboroughii Nepenthes maxima Nepenthes rajah Nepenthes singulana Nepenthes talangensis Pinguicula cyclosecta Pinguicula gypsicola x moctozumae Sarracenia alata Sarracenia leucophylla Sarracenia Moorei

April Meeting

The topic genus for the April meeting was Drosera. Steve brought in a Drosera Andromeda, which was voted plant of the night. This is a hybrid betweem Drosera schizandra and Drosera prolifera). The leaves of this hybrid look similar to Drosera schizandra but Steve said it's easier to grow than that species and it also produces plantlets from the flower stem like Drosera prolifera. Steve's Drosera binata va multifida was voted runner up plant of the night. This was quite a robust and stocky form of the species from a north eastern NSW provenance. 3rd place went to Peter's Drosera "Dork's Pink". This is a pygmy Drosera hybrid between Drosera callistos and Drosera lasiantha. Amongst the non topic plants Peter brought in several Pinguicula, 3 of these Pinguicula gypicola x moctozumae (plant of the night), Pinguicula gracilis x moctozumae (runner up) and Pinguicula moranensis var neovolcanica (3rd place) were nominated for non-topic plant of the night. The winner Pinguicula gypicola x moctozumae was interesting as the leaves were quite distinct from most Pinguicula seen in Melbounre and were strongly influenced by the Pinguicula gypsicola parent.


The plants benched at the April meeting included:

Drosera aberrans Drosera adelae Drosera aliciae Drosera "Andromeda" Drosera binata vae multifida Drosera "Dork's Pink" Drosera roseanna Drosera slackii Drosera spatulata Pinguicula emarginata x moctazumae Pinguicula emarginata x "Weser"

Pinguicula gigantea Pinguicula esseriana Pinguicula gracilis x moctazumae Pinguicula gypsicola x moctazumae Pinguicula laueana Pinguicula moranensis x ehlersiae Pinguicula moranensis var neovolcanica Pinguicula potosiensis Pinguicula rectifolia Pinguicula sp. Mazatecas Sarracenia leucophylla

March Meeting

Two pitcher plant genera from the New World and Old World tropics, Heliamphora and Nepenthes, were the topic plants for the March meeting. In Melbourne, these are generally plants for the greenhouse where they can be more easily provided additional humidity in summer and protection from cold, frosty nights in winter. However, with most Heliamphora species and a considerable number of Nepenthes species coming from cool highland zones, you can get very good results with a large number of species and hybrids without the need for any artificial heating. The Heliamphora and Nepenthes brought into the meeting were judged separately for plant of the night. Ron brought in several large Heliamphora and his Heliamphora sp Akopan Tepui was voted Heliamaphora of the night. This is an as yet undescribed species that appears to be related to Heliamphora heterodoxa but has wider pitchers and a smaller nectar spoon. Ron's Heliamphora folliculata x ionasi and his Heliamphora sp Angasima Tepui were voted 2nd and 3rd place Heliamaphora of the night respectively. Ron's Nepenthes rajah was also voted Nepenthes of the night. This plant was grown from seed sown in 2012 and Ron's plant was quite large for this slow growing species. 2nd place Nepenthes of the Night went to Steve's Nepenthes carunculata var. robusta, a plant considered synonymous to Nepenthes bongso with 3rd place going to Steve's Nepenthes nigra. Peter brought in several pots of Cephalotus follicularis one of which was voted Non-topic plant of the night. These pots included plants that had been grown from seed, leaf pullings and root cuttings. Vegetative propagation is usually a faster and easier way of propagating Cephalotus compared to seed. Not only does Cephalotus seed tend to be short lived, it's not uncommon to lose a lot of the seedlings that do germinate to damping off. Steve's Sarracenia minor var oekfenokeensis was voted runner up plant of the night with 3rd place going to Steve's Dionaea muscipula "Schuppensteil" x self, which was not producing crestate petioles like the parent cultivar but was instead producing very yellow traps


The plants benched at the March meeting included:

Cephalotus follicularis Darlingtonia californica Dionaea muscipula "Schuppensteil" x self Drosera pulchella Heliamphora chimantensis Heliamphora folliculata x ionasi Heliamphora heterodoxa Heliamphora hispidula Heliamphora minor Heliamphora nutans x heterodoxa Heliamphora purpurescens Heliamphora sarracenioides Heliamphora sp Agasima Heliamphora sp Akopan Nepenthes attenboroughii Nepenthes burbidgeae Nepenthes carunculata var. robusta

Nepenthes dubia Nepenthes gymnaphora Nepenthes lowei x truncata Nepenthes minima Nepenthes nigra Nepenthes rajah Nepenthes "Rebecca Soper" Nepenthes platychila Nepenthes truncata x (spectabilis x northiana) Nepenthes veitchii Sarracenia leucophylla Sarracenia minor var okefenokeensis Utricularia cornuta Utricularia dichotoma ssp maritima Utricularia livida Utricularia prehensilis

February Meeting

The topic plants for the February meeting were Sarracenia, the North American pitcher plants, and Dionaea, the Venus flytrap. Both are excellent genera for both new and experienced growers alike. Each genus was judged separately for topic plant of the night. Steve's D. muscipula 'Atlanta' x 'Akai Ryu' was voted VFT of the night. This was a very vigorous plant that colours up well. 2nd and 3rd place went to Steve's D muscipula 'All Red Traps', which is red on the inside and outside of the traps, and 'Werewolf' x self, which produces traps with gnarled teeth. Steve's Sarracenias also won all places for Sarracenia of the night. His S. minor var okefenokeensis was producing very tall pitchers even for this variety. 2nd and 3rd place went to two S. purpurea spp venosa: a relic form and a var montana. Amongst the other plants benched, Steve's Utricularia a yellow flowered species from southern USA, was voted non topic plant of the night. 2nd and 3rd place non-topic plants went to Andrew's tropical form of Drosera intermedia and Steve's Genlisea filiformis.
The species benched at the February meeting included:

Dionaea 'Akai Ryu' Dionaea 'All Red Traps' Dionaea 'Atlanta' x 'Akai Ryu' Dionaea 'Australian Red Rosette' Dionaea 'Big Tomato' Dionaea 'Big Tomato' x ('G14'x'G16') Dionaea 'Bimbo' x self Dionaea 'Bristletooth' Dionaea 'Coquillage' Dionaea 'Creeping Death' Dionaea 'Dragon Fire' Dionaea 'G14' x 'G16' Dionaea 'G16' Dionaea 'Microdent' Dionaea 'Moon Traps' x self Dionaea 'Patches' Dionaea 'Red Piranha' Dionaea 'Royal Red' Dionaea 'Schuppenstiel' x self Dionaea 'Sharks Teeth' Dionaea 'Slack's Giant'

Dionaea 'Spider' Dionaea 'Tiger Fangs' Dionaea 'Werewolf' x self Dionaea 'Microdent' Dionaea 'Bristletooth' Drosera 'Dork's Pink' Drosera intermedia Drosera pulchella Drosera roseana Drosera scorpioides Drosera verrucata Genlisea filiformis Pinguigula cyclocecta Pinguigula esseriana Sarracenia alata var atrorubra Sarracenia flava var atropurpurea Sarracenia jonesei Sarracenia leucophylla Sarracenia minor var okefenokeensis Sarracenia psittacina var okefenokeensis Sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa Sarracenia purpurea ssp venosa var montana Utricularia cornuta