[GrowRR] Alcantarea nahoumii

[Dave Christiano]

I have grown Al. odorata for a long time. Interesting you should ask about
the seed and puping habits. These were the topic of hot conversations
several years ago when I bloomed it last. I had inquired (on the brom-L list
I think) about the habit of forming a single flattened pup after blooming.
Apparently this is fairly common. I decided to do an experiment and I
whacked off the spike much to the dismay of the Australia/New Zealand crowd
(who really wanted some seed.) I did put the spike in sugar water and it did
produce a few pods which I sent off across the Pacific but I suspect they
were not fertile. Back to the experiment. Although the plant wasn't allowed
to produce seed, it did produce the desired result (for me) in that it I got
about 5 quite large pups.

The plant continuously produced grass pups throughout its life. I have the
greenish clone, which is not nearly as beautiful as the silver banded
variety. It grows slowly here until it gets about 18-24" in height when it
really gets going. 

Dave & Mary Christiano
Springfield, Missouri
http://geocities.com/ne0b/

"Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple
or more direct than does Nature, because in her  inventions, nothing is
lacking and nothing is superfluous." 
-Leonardo Da Vinci



-----Original Message-----
From: growrr-bounces at bsi.org [mailto:growrr-bounces at bsi.org] On Behalf Of
Geo S
Sent: Saturday, December 16, 2006 3:12 PM
To: webmaster at bsi.org
Cc: growrr at bsi.org
Subject: Re: [GrowRR] Alcantarea nahoumii


Hi Ken,

Thank you for the reply and the info! I've grown a few Alcantareas and have 
had different experiences with each, so thats pretty much why I was curious 
about what A.edmundoi would do.

Has anyone had any experience growing Alcantarea odorata? What are it's 
pupping and seeding habits? Does anyone have any seed they'd like to trade 
or sell?

The Alcantarea's I've grown so far are shown below. I've indicated which 
ones have produced both adventitious pups before flowering and regular pups 
after flowering with an *. The others that aren't marked have only ever 
produced adventitious pups, but die completely after flowering. With regard 
to seed production, the one's that I've found to be self-pollinators have 
been indicated with an ^. One's that haven't been marked with an ^ have not 
been self-pollinators in my experience.

Alcantarea vinicolor*
Alcantarea sp. aff vinicolor 1*^
Alcantarea sp. aff vinicolor 2*^
Alcantarea glaziouana*
Alcantarea extensa (not yet flowered, adventitious pups only so far)
Alcantarea edmundoi (not yet flowered, adventitious pups only so far)
Alcantarea imperialis Green Form^ Alcantarea imperialis Rubra form
Alcantarea imperialis All-red form Alcantarea sp. regina ?* Alcantarea sp.
(possible xVrietarea bigeneric hybrid with A.vinicolor as a 
parent)*




>From: Ken Marks <webmaster at bsi.org>
>To: Geo S <geo7878 at hotmail.com>
>CC: growrr at bsi.org
>Subject: Re: [GrowRR] Alcantarea nahoumii
>Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:37:15 -0500
>
>Geo S wrote:
>
>>Hi there,
>>
>>Has anyone had any experience growing this species?
>>
>>Does it prefer full-sun or semi-shade?
>>
>>Does it produce pups after flowering, or does it completely die after
>>flowering like A.imperialis?
>
>Most Alcantarea that I've seen or grown seem to like bright (or full) 
>sun -
>something else that separates this group from the Vrieseas that they were 
>once grouped into. I have never got any pups off of any of my Alcantarea 
>(other than the hair pups that they put out early on). These hair/grass 
>pups may be removed and treated like seedlings to grow out. I've had good 
>success by potting them in pure sphagnum. The only time I've ever had 
>anything but these tiny pups was when raccoons trashed a plant ripping it 
>to shreds. The remaining stem and few leaf fragments pushed up a couple of 
>reasonable-sized pups with the last of its strength.
>
>That's about the sum-total of my experience with these great 
>landscaping
>broms.
>
>
>
>--
>Ken Marks
>BSI Webmaster
>
>

_________________________________________________________________
Advertisement: Mobiles, computers, handsets, iPODs and more! 



_______________________________________________
GrowRR mailing list
GrowRR at bsi.org
http://bsi.org/mailman/listinfo/growrr_bsi.org