..and they sure come in bizarrely beautiful forms….
This is my favourite, Drosera palacea ssp palacea, gotten from a kind forumer way back in 2008. So far, there are no gemmae formation, which leads me to believe my plants are maturing at the rate of an Ent. They belong to a family of Droseras which are miniature in size (pygmies, to drive home the point). These are quite easy plants to manage under natural sunlight, PL lights or T5, whichever compensates for the most intense light (these are full sun loving plants).
These two lovebirds grew up together in this pot which I got from another forumer back in 2009. They have grown from the size of a red bean to the size of a dime. In the past two months, they’ve started to send out flower stalks with light violet coloured flowers.
These fellas remind me of the bioluminescent airborne jellyfish creatures in James Cameron’s Avatar movie. They have been rejuvenated twice since 2008 and show no signs of slowing growth, provided their flower stalks are to be cut in time (a vivid act of selfishness I know) for the seeds I last sown showed no signs of germination contrary to what most would say otherwise. If the plant sings its swan song, a slow and tragic peril of death will follow shortly after. One means to prevent them doing just that is to transplant them and expose them to high light levels. They will reset their growth cycle in a week or two.
If you are keen on enjoying things minute and beautiful, these are the plants for you, to name a few. More to come in future upcoming posts…
if only my palacea ssp palacea looked like that, alvin. yours are lovely!
Thanks Vi! But as of now, none of the individuals have produced gemmae as yet. :T
How I wish my Drosera palacea ssp palacea growing nice like yours…