Pipewort

One day last week, I dropped in at a local botanical shop and found pipeworts (Eriocaulon parvum) in a big case filled with rain water. They were thriving like weeds in the case but not on sale. So the shop owner willingly let me pull some of them.

Bringing them home, I placed them in a pot. Hopefully I'll obtain lots of the seeds.

This pipeworts brooming a lot of small flowers in metallic grey.

The flower looks like a very tiny artichoke.

Then I dismantled one of the flowers. There are pale white seeds between petals.

The season for pygmy sundew's gemmae

Gemmae of pygmy sundews are now growing in my greenhouse. As we have long hot summer this year, the fruit season is a bit later than normal year.

Drosera gebsonii 

Drosera pedicellaris

Drosera walyunga

Drosera scorpioides 'Gidgegannup Form'

Drosera callisitos

This pygmy sundew is widely known as D. 'Toodyay Pink' in Japan but as Toodyay Pink is a synonym of D. spilos, which is another pygmy sundew, I must say this is a wrong name. After looking up some information on the Internet, I come to be almost convinced that this is a natural hybrid between D. nitidula and D. pygmaea. Anyway whatever this hybrid is, this is a nice pygmy sundew as the cultivation is quite easy and in autumn the whole plant beautifully coloures in vivid red.

Drosera linearis

Drosera linearis, commonly known 'slenderleaf sundew' is native to North America such as Great Lake in Michigan.

I stared the cultivation of this sundew in last autumn as a drosera grower living in Kansai region kindly gave me 2 of his precious seedlings. First of all, I was pretty worried if I could maintain this beautiful but difficult sundew due to the differences of environmental conditions, that this species inhabits under cool climate while our summer is boiling hot. 

So during spring when the weather was still mild, I placed the pot under full sunshine to encourage the plants would grow faster. Then as the temps. exceeded 30 C in late May, I immediately put it under half-shade to avoid the risks. 

Even though I could avoid strong sunshine, I expected that the plants would be weaker due to the lack of sunshine. However, it seemed to be alright under poor ray although their growth got so slow..... As a result, D. linearis seems to seek less sunshine, compared with other North American temperate sundews like D. anglica, D. filiformis and D. intermedia. 

Until now I haven't faced any troubles and they ensured the whole summer heats without operating air conditioner after all. D. linearis is probably tolerant to heat more than I initially expected. Lucky me!

I took up the cultivation of this sundew with only 2 seedlings as I wrote above. And now the number is still 2. Hopefully the next year I will see the flowers and obtain a lot of seeds. 2 isn't enough at all to maintain the species!

16 October 2011

15 April 2012

5 May 2012

10 May 2012

29 July 2012

22 September 2012

Wild stonecrops

These are native or non-native stonecrops in wild. Absorbing moisture from the air during night time, they tend to be seen near lots of water like riverside, seaside and pondside, where fog easily appears at night.

Sedum oryzifolium on the middle of the cliff near the sea at my local site.

Sedum sarmentosum, this sedum is very common and easy to find, especially banks of rivers. It is said this is naturalised species from China and Korean peninsula more than a century ago.

Sedum bulbiferum at my backyard. This stonecrops make gemmae around its leaf joints.

Sedum makinoi cv., this species usually have green leaves but this is a cultivar with yellow leaves. I found this community on a residential street. So this must have come out of one of the houses near this site.

Sedum mexicanum at a gutter cover. It look so unstable but I think it is comfortable as absorbing moisture from this gutter.This sedum is one of horticultural kinds but originally native to Mexico. 

Hybrid sundews

This was crossbred and named 'Bio-drop' by a Japanese carnivorous plant nursery as a hybrid between D. burkeana and D. capensis. However, D. burkeana at that nursery doesn't look like D. burkeana but D. spatulata indeed.










A pale pink flower of Bio-drop.As a hybrid there is no germinability.














This is Drosera neocaledonica x aliciae. This hybrid is also originated from Japan.

Venus Flytraps

These are Venus Flytrap variations at my grow space. Most of them are very easy to grow but some clones, especially the ones from Europe, are quite feeble. I tend to lose some of the plants during our rainy season in June and July due to some bacteria sorts spreading.

Fringed orchid (Habenaria radiata)

The rainy season is now finishing, and hot and humid summer is around the corner. The first flower of fringed orchid (Habenaria radiata cv) this season has bloomed in my grow space after raining a lot yesterday. 

This is a cultivated variety called 'Akebono', whose leaves are variegated.  Akebono means 'dawn' in Japanese.

A different type of fringed orchid with normal leaves. They are about to bloom.

Spoon-shaped sundew

These are Drosera spatulata, commonly called 'spoon-shaped sundew' due to the shape of the stipules. But we call them 'small sundew' in Japan. Now it is a blooming season for them and lots of pinkish flowers can be seen around there.

This small habitat is on a wet bank of bare soil beside a local road, which appeared after a road construction. It is ironic that the thrive of this sundews is based on such a thing. 


I drive along this road on the way to work. So I often have opportunities to drop in at this site and have a look at them.

Lady's tresses

Well, this is my first article written in English! I'm still thinking what I should write about in this blog.

I saw lady's tresses (Spiranthes sinensis) in my local site. This orchid is widespread in Asia, the east Europe and Oceania. This orchid has an unique inflorescence, which looks like winding stairs.