Drosera Capensis from seed

When I was young I grew a cape sundew (Drosera capensis), it lived for many years and was rather large by the end.  It was the first carnivorous plant I successfully grew, through that plant I learned how to grow carnivorous plants, how to things from seed, basic seed saving, how to take cuttings, and some basic plant breeding.

They are so easy to grow that I ended up with more of them than I could count.  The lessons I learned from it allowed me to successfully grow and reproduce venus fly traps, and I eventually grew a whole lot of other carnivorous plants too.  I missed growing carnivorous plants.

For a few years I have wanted to grow carnivorous plants again, but haven't had the money or space, and I had nowhere safe from my kids to grow them.

Drosera capensis sending up a flower stalk - not my photo

Recently I got some seed of Drosera capensis.  Seed was cheaper than buying a plant, but it is risky as seedlings are tiny that things can go wrong and old seed or poorly stored seed can have low or no germination rates.

I had good rates of germination and decided to record the number of days from planting the seed.  If I remember I will try to record the flowering date, but that is a few months away and any number of things could happen between now and then.

Days to germinate Drosera capensis
Seed planted             22/03/2019      Day 0
Germinated              06/04/2019       Day 15
Carnivorous leaves   21/04/2019      Day 30
Seeds ready to plant 19/12/2020      Around 21 months under poor conditions

Drosera capensis seedlings

The seeds are tiny, several would fit on the full stop at the end of this sentence.  The seedlings are far too tiny at the moment for me to be able to take a decent picture, so I found some pictures on the internet of mature plants.

For a full list of vegetable days to maturity (I know that sundews are not really vegetables) please click here.

Drosera capensis leaf curling around prey - not my photo

Non-photosynthetic plants

You don't see many non-photosynthetic plants, which is probably a good thing.  I am not talking about fungi, they are not plants.  I am talking about flowering plants that don't photosynthesize.

The first time I saw a non-photosynthetic plant I was a teenager.  We had done a hazard reduction fire and a few weeks later a stem appeared in the parched ground.  It grew no leaves, only a flower stalk.  The flower stalk reached about 5 or 6 feet tall then opened into flowers.  It was a native orchid.  It was beautiful, I had never seen one before and have never seen one since.

Broomrape flowers

Most people know that green plants use photosynthesis to make energy, and that albino plants quickly die, so non-photosynthetic plants need some other way to gain energy.  Apparently non-photosynthetic plants are either parasites which directly feed off other plants, or they are indirect parasites through being myco-heterotrophs (feed off fungi) the fungi usually feeds off other green plants. 

Non-photosynthetic plants is a fascinating topic.  Sometimes this is a symbiotic relationship between the non-photosynthetic plant and the fungi, often the fungi gets nothing out of the deal.

Some non-photosynthetic plants don't have any above ground parts until they flower.  Others have stems and things above ground.

Non-photosynthetic plants sometimes have no above ground parts other than flowers

Last year I found a non-photosynthetic plant.  I hoped it would be an orchid, so I kept going back to check on it until it flowered, but it wasn't an orchid.  It was something I had never seen before.  I showed someone who identified it as a 'broomrape'.

Broomrape

Broomrape are plant parasites, in Australia there are three species.  I am not sure which this was, I have narrowed it down to two possibilities.  None of them have been recorded here, but two of the species have been recorded an hour or two from here.

Broomrape growing among grass

Branched broomrape (Orobanche ramosa) is a noxious weed that must be destroyed and reported.  It represents a serious threat to grain crops and has never been reported in this part of the country.  After looking at pictures on the internet and reading descriptions I am pretty confident that this plant was not branched broomrape.

Clover broomrape (Orobanche minor) is a minor agricultural pest, but not considered too much of a problems in Australia.  I don't think it needs to be destroyed and reported (I may need to double check this).

Native broomrape (Orobanche cernua var. australiana) is, as far as I can tell this is very rare and almost extinct.  Being native and rare it is not to be destroyed.

Non-photosynthetic broomrape

The plant is an annual that has long since died and disappeared.  If you can tell from my pictures what species of broomrape it is I would love to know.  Or if you have a simple way to tell between the two species please let me know, if it flowers again next year I will have a closer look.