williamsii in a similar climate? <<
As Eduardo explained, P. bipinn. occurs far south in S. America, and so is
adapted to withstand cold. There are several other self headers from this
region that are also cold tollerant, but not P. goeldii, P. 'williamsii' and
P. solem., these occur much further North in tropical jungle, and are not as
cold tollerant as the species from further south.
I have seen the Cyclanth in question, and man is it a beauty! I THINK I
MIGHT have some info. on this sp., as it is tissue cultured in Apopka, Fl.
When we visited Joep Moonen in Fr. Guyana a couple years ago, we were struck
by the beauty of two 'self heading' Cyclanths that we came across in the
jungle, one was C. gigantia, a 5'X5' BEAUTIFUL plant, I remember that when
the late Dr. Birdsy was alive he constatnly was asking anyone visiting the
Guyanas to try their best to obtain one of these for him! The second
species we saw was C. pygmeae (spelling?) that was even more striking, this
was a fully leaved plant, compact, about 2 1/2'X2 1/2', what a beauty! It
closely resembled the plant being marketed as 'Jungle Drum', several were
collected and brought back to the USA, I wonder if one made it`s way to the
tissue culture lab and is now being marketed???. We also saw many of the
climbing species of Cyclanth, all were beautiful plants. Just for the
record, when I worked in Amazonian Ecuador many years ago, I came across a
large colony of a terrestrial Cyclanth on the banks of the Agua rico river,
many were in bloom, tall with light pink petals, about 5-6 petals per bloom,
VERY fragrant! The locals used them at funerals to cover the smell of
death (no refrigeration or embalmers in those parts). I also came across
another colony further off that had light cream-yellow petals!
Hope this helps.
Julius
>>Off topic question:
>>I was at my local garden center a few weeks ago seeing if they had
anything unusual in. I was glad I did. I was passing by the three gallon
pot section that have the usual Ficus and palm varieties, miscellaneous
Spathiphyllum cultivars, etc, and a pair of plants caught my eye. At
first, I though they were the palm Chamaedorea metallica, but they
looked different. Upon bending over for closer inspection, the structure
of the stem and dried up inflorescense revealed it wasn't a palm, and
eventually it came to me that this was a member of the Cyclanthaceae
family. I had always been fascinated with these plants as much as I am
with certain types of Aroids, and never expected to have one available
for purchase, especially at this place! According to the tag, the name
given to the three foot high plant was simply "Jungle Drum $24.99". I
would be very interested in figuring out the proper name of this
species, and if anyone is familiar with this group of plants, I can
email a photo for possible ID. The nursery was of no help in tracking
down where it came from, and when I returned to purchase the other one,
someone had already snatched it up. If anyone has any ideas of the
species of this "Jungle Drum", please let me know off list. Also, if
anyone has any members of this family available, please let me know. By
the way, are members of Cyclanthaceae called "Cyclanthids, Cyclanthiads,
Cyclanthoids, or what?
Thanks!
Adam<<
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