Germination of Utricularia gibba

A flower of U. gibba

I know! No-one dare to propagate U. gibba from seeds as it is the easiest aquatic bladderwort species to grow. So it is just a curiosity to go through it.

I used a 500 ml plastic bottle as its container. And as for water in the bottle, I boiled mineral water with a pinch of peat. So its colour is slightly brown. After the water cooling down, I put the seeds in the bottle. First of all, they were floating around the neck of the bottle but soon later sinking down on the bottom. 

The seeds; to obtain seeds, it seems to be better to self-pollinating.

Then approximately 3 weeks after sowing, I found a very tiny green thread floating up and down in the water. It already has some bladders on it. And a bit later on I confirmed some more germinations.

the germination of U. gibba

And soon later they got entangled together like fishing nets. They grew amazingly fast. So I gave up counting how many buts appeared......  

2 months later after sowing

Drosera indica White flower 'Tsukuba'

My cultivated Drosera indica 'Tsukuba' is showing a tiny white flower. I didn't expected that early flowering as the rainy season is still going on.

The flower has only four petals, but one missing. It is perhaps because the plant hasn't fully grown and the flower is the first one.

In this pot Drosera indica red flower 'Toyohashi' is growing. This looks bigger and more robust than the white flower's above. I hope this will also make lots of flower very soon, and seeds after all.

Pinguicula lusitanica

I've been growing Pinguicula lusitanica for about 2 years. I don't have so many butterworts as I am not good at cultivating the species. But P. lusitanica is not so difficult to grow even for me! Fruiting the seeds, they tend to wither. So I sow the seeds on a year basis.

There seem to be regional variations in colour of their flowers. So it would be interesting if correcting them in different locations. 

Carnivorous plants in habitat

It's a middle of spring and very warm here and moreover off-day today! So I visited a local site where 4 kinds of natural sundews can be seen. This is a very special for our only tuberous drosera, D. peltata in habitat.

A month ago I couldn't find a sign of D. peltata budding. They grow very quickly.

The floral apexes are just growing and in a next month they will make tiny while flowers.

A leaf with mucus, very sticky!

D. spatulata is very common in here.

A flower of D. spatulata

Tiny flowers of Gentiana squarrosa are everywhere.

One of the most common orchid in Japan, Bletilla striata

Back to carnivorous, This is D. rotundifolia.

This is D. tokaiensis, a natural hybrid between D. rotundifolia and D. spatulata. This is also very common.

Purplish flowers of Polygala japonica

Wisteria floribunda, slightly scented

Stylidium sp.

One of my triggerplants has bloomed pinkish flowers with dark red triggers today. It took about 2 years to meet the flowers from seeds.

But the thing is that initially I imported the seeds as Stylidium diuroides subsp. diuroides from an Australian nursery. But confirming the flower, I realised that this name was wrong because the flower of S. diuroides is yellow!

I looked through the Internet to identify this species. Then I came across two species. It seems to be either S. brunomianum or S. tenue. Does anyone know the actual name of this trigger???

Some Genliseas

Spring has finally come! So I repotted my Genliseas to renew their soils. I use peat and perlite mix for their  soil, which is the best to grow Genlisea sorts as far as I know. But the thing is that it's easy to get rotten. So I have to renew the soil quite often.

 This is my only G. aurea 'Itacambira'. It is not so difficult to cultivate but its growing is extremely slow. And it's shown no signs of flowering at all for almost 4 years.

 The Y-shaped trap of G. aurea.

 These are G. glandulossima. Compared with G. aurea, they grow a bit faster.

 The roots of G. lobata x flexuosa. This is the easiest of all I grow.

The flowers of G. lobata x flexuosa

Helianphora minor

I obtained a pot of Helianphora minor about 1 year ago at a cornivorous plant meeting. One of the participants brought the pods, and generously enough, he gave them to us on free! Since then, I've been growing the first and the only Helianphora at my grow space.

This is the appearance about a year ago.

And this is now! It is not very quickly but gradually growing. This spring, I'm going to separate the roots to some pots.

One of the nectar spoon, which secretes sweet liquid

I carelessly dropped a hard thing onto this pitcher and it's damaged... Any parts of Helanphora has no flexibility at all and they break very easily! But it's still growing even after damaged.

The 18th Toukai Carnivorous Plants Meeting

The 18th Carnivorous Plants Meeting held by TCPS took place last Sunday. It was in my local and much more easier to travel to the venue, compared with the last one in Osaka.

According to the organiser, 19 people attended the meeting. Some of them were from long way cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. I enjoyed chatting with them.

Pinguicula jaumavensis

A flower of P. pilosa

One of Nepenthes- I'm not so familiar with pitcher plants... Sorry

N. ampullaria - I think.... Am I right?

Lots of rare butterworts were on sale

So were sundews

This is what I bought at the meeting, N. x ventrata. I'm now struggling to look up the growing tips.

The 64th Kansai Carnivorous Plants Meeting

Various exhibits

I went to Osaka last Sunday to take part in the 64th Kaisai Carnivorous Plants Meeting. It wasn't the first time for me to attend the meeting and I already knew most of the participants. So I had no hesitation to join there at all although It was quite tough to reach the venue all the way from my local by coach , which took about 3 hours....

This is the most newly registered pygmy sundew, Drosera gibsonii with a lot of gemaae in the centre.

 Drosera macrophylla

Beautiful purplish blue bladderworts, Utricularia lasiocaulis, native to the north west Australia

This venus flytrap is so weird! According to the label, It is called  'Triton'. The owner imported this plant from Germany.

This is a South African sundew, Drosera hillaris. it is svery hard to cultivate in Japan due to summer heat.

Drosera caledonica

Venus flyatrap 'Suzuki', a very beautiful rosette form.

Then this weekend on Sunday, 18th Tokai Carnivorous Plants Meeting held by TCPS is taking place. In fact this is the meeting of my local Carnivorous Plant Society. So it is no way no to join there!