NEWS
Utricularia beaugleholei found in west Melbourne!
On December 23 rd the above plant was found flowering in a western Melbourne location by VCPS member Sean Spence.Incidentally Sean discovered this species many years ago at a west Melbourne location.The recent sighting is noteworthy for a couple of reasons.Firstly U.beaugleholei which is thought to be an annual at the west Melbourne locations,has not been seen near Melbourne since 2003 due to unusually dry conditions prevailing since then.It was not known whether the plants could survive several years of drought since this was the first dry spell of its type since Melbourne weather records began.Happily the plants have survived indicating that they are well adapted to cope with drought.Presumably the seed can survive for several dry seasons without germinating.Interestingly in that time it would have been quite wet a number of times but probably requires a prolonged immersion in water to germinate.Another possibility is that the plants produce tubers but these have not been seen and it is unlikely that the plants are producing them.Yet another possibility is that birds have replenished seed reserves however this is probably unlikely as well.The second noteworthy item is that for the first time in the Western Melbourne area the plants have been observed flowering in December.Usually they flower there for a short time in mid November.The reason they did not flower at that time in 2010 is that the water levels were much higher than the usual 10-20cm observed at previous flowering times.So it seems that the plants were able to delay flowering until the water level subsided to a more reasonable level.Otherwise they would have had to grow very long stalks to get the flowers out of the water,weakening the plants.It is certainly an interesting and understandable adaptation.Below is a photo of a plant from west Melbourne.
VCPS Show
The 2010 VCPS show was very succesful with many members coming from interstate to check out the display and catch up with other members.Well known author in the CP world Stuart McPherson was there signing and selling his new books,Australasian CP society founder Greg Bourke and a former president of the Australian Carnivorous plant society also paid a visit.Greg B.and Stuart M. had recently been on an expedition in the Phillipines searching for Nepenthes and had many interesting stories to tell! Regarding flesh eating bacteria,new Nepenthes and getting through customs with a machete! Tasmanians Darren Cullen and Dr. M. Salas crossed Bass straight to see what all the fuss was about.The reason was probably more to do with Victorian beer rather than CP's but we were happy to have them there anyway.A notable absentee was former Grand Champion award winner Stuart McIlroy who was very much missed.Stuart please come back next year.Your fantastic CP displays have become an important part of VCPS shows.The Grand Champion plant was a nice Nepenthes bicalcarata ,being a lowland plant and requiring high temperatures year round it's a difficult plant to grow well in Victoria.However the owner VCPS president Steve Fretwell has found a way. Not far behind in impressiveness was a large Drosera regia owned by Andrew Gibbons.Although Andrew has little time to devote to CP's it doesn't stop him from growing fantastic plants.Well done Andrew in getting the Reserve Champion award! The weather was hot and humid which kept the Nepenthes very happy but tested the stamina of some members who stayed there all day.It was good training for trekking in the tropics looking for Nepenthes anyway. Thanks to all the members that supported the show and we hope to see you all again in 2011.Results and photos here
Plant of the night
The plant of the night award for the September 2010 meeting was won by a Cephalotus follicularis (Albany pitcher plant) with nice dark coloured pitchers.The plant is owned by Mark Batchelor.There was some debate as to the reason for the dark colouration as Mark has plants of the same clone in a similar position with much lighter colouring.Temperature is known to affect colouring as is compost but there are probably many other factors involved as well.
Plant of the night
The plant of the night award for the August 2010 meeting was shared by D.Zonaria owned by Julian Weston and D.Moorei owned by Steve Fretwell.Many people mentioned that the D.Zonaria plant which was approximately 7-8cm across was the biggest one they had ever seen for that species.Julian grows most if his tuberous drosera outside with part shelter from a fence.They are mainly watered by the rains ensuring very little salt build up in the pots.He uses large pots and uses a mainly sandy mix with his D.Zonaria.Drosera Moorei also impressed with many bright yellow flowers remaining open all night.The plant itself was approximately 30cm tall and climbing a stick attached to the pot.Steve grows his tuberous drosera in a similar way to Julian.There were many other beautiful tuberous drosera that were brought to the meeting.
Plant of the night
The plant of the night for the July 2010 meeting was Heliamphora Neblinae owned by Steve Fretwell. Although the plant gets much larger you can see nice pitcher development and colour in the specimen below.
March Journal
Just a short note to say that the March Journal is running late due to some difficult times the journal editor has had. It will be sent soon along with the June journal.
VCPS AGM
Despite the cold weather there was good attendance of the 2010 VCPS AGM including a new member and friend.Most committee positions remained unchanged as is becoming the norm.There were some very fine plants that were brought to the meeting including a number of beautifully coloured and developed Cephalotus plants,a Heliamphora Tatei,some large Drosophyllum Lusitanicum and a number of tuberous drosera and Nepenthes.The plant of the night pictured below was H.Tatei owned by Adam Strathairn.Adam explained to the group that it was actually doing a lot better than his other species of Heliamphora.He keeps it outside under a little shelter to protect from frosts,in such conditions the sphagnum moss it grows in also grows quite well.In Melbourne temperatures can get to about 2C overnight in winter but H.Tatei has no problem at all in such temperatures as can be seen from the photo.
Peter Bloem described how he grows his Drosophyllum in his greenhouse.He starts the young plants in small pots and transplants them when a few months old with no problems.He transplants them into a mainly sandy mix and decreases the amount of watering gradually.The adult plants like their compost only slightly moist.Also the adult plants should never be transplanted as they hate root disturbance.In the Melbourne climate Peters plants do very well ,growing and flowering for many years.Being an adventurous type Peter set one of his main plants on fire after hearing that they could survive scrub fires.After what he described as a flash, the plant was all black and burnt.He then mentioned that the dried leaves of Drosophyllum are very flamable so if anyone is going to try this please take extreme care.Much to his relief a few weeks later his burnt plant developed shoots.Unfortunately it did not survive the 46C temperatures of Black Saturday some time later but by that time Peter had obtained plenty of seed.The plants below are from those seeds.
