Plants instead of flowers!

Almost exactly a year ago to the day, we showed you an example of ‘pseudo-viviparity’ in a Venus flytrap – a phenomenon that results in the formation of fully-fledged new plants within an inflorescence. We had pointed out that it could also be observed on Drosera, which we are fortunate enough to be seeing amongst our Drosera capensis in cultivation.

It is noticeable that:

The aerial shoots have quite simply taken the place of the flowers at this point on the inflorescence, whilst flowers have developed normally both upstream and downstream.

Their shape is not characteristic of the usual leaves of Drosera capensis, but rather resembles young rosettes of Drosera schizandra… They are very vigorous and grow more quickly than young seedlings from seed (see previous post).

If this occurs at the same time of year, it is no coincidence, as this is when the day/night temperature contrasts are at their greatest, and this is what can disrupt the growth of certain specimens