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Post by stevebooth on Jul 14, 2015 18:45:46 GMT
the Dipsacus or teasel used to be used for teasing wool in the Google old days, but does have some claim to carnivorous habit. The genus name is derived from the word for thirst of water and refers to the cup-like formation made where sessile leaves merge at the stem. Rain water can collect in this receptacle; this may perform the function of preventing sap-sucking insects such as aphids from climbing the stem. A recent experiment has shown that adding dead insects to these cups increases the seedset of teasels (but not their height), implying partial carnivory.[2] The leaf shape is lanceolate, 20–40 centimetres (7.9–15.7 in) long and 3–6 centimetres (1.2–2.4 in) broad, with a row of small spines on the underside of the midrib. and here's the soup in the leaf axil Cheers steve
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Post by stevebooth on Jun 12, 2016 14:44:03 GMT
This year I decided to provide one plant with space to grow and a nutritious growing medium, adjacent the pond, to observe some of its habits. So far the plant is 1200mm high and the second set of sessile leaves has formed a large cup, having a circumference of 21 inches and a capacity of just over one pint. A variety of dead beetles, spiders and flies (twenty counted but that was visual only without disturbing the contents) are slowly rotting within the fluid, but with the almost biblical amounts of rain we have had recently, the fluid concentration has been diluted by the rain collection method of the plant that channels a lot of the rain to the stem, which has caused the collector to overflow and take the diluted nutrients down the stem to the cup below, which similarly overflows, the liquid again following the stem and depositing the overflow directly onto the soil above the root system. Cheers Steve
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Post by fredg on Jun 12, 2016 15:07:25 GMT
Is this all true or are you just teasing Steve?
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Post by stevebooth on Jun 13, 2016 11:38:45 GMT
Some pictures are appended of the plant in question. At the risk of stating the obvious, the laves as they progress up the stem are rotated at 90 degrees to each other and the broad, ensiform leaves, for the majority of their length, decline towards the stem and collection cup (is there a correct term for this structure? It exceeds my vocabulary) to maximise and direct water collection, any overflow from the plant is then channelled to the soil via the stem, increasing the local wetting front and the water availability at the tap root, simple and effective. For an idea of scale the distance from the edge of the watch strap to my finger tips is 8.5” (216 mm) Cheers Steve
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Post by fredg on Jun 13, 2016 19:18:34 GMT
Keep trying Steve, you'll get the hang of this newfangled technology stuff yet
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Post by stevebooth on Jul 10, 2016 7:18:05 GMT
Update - I have just measured the plant at 2.23 m high at the moment with in excess of 80 flower buds ( I lost count over that figure), it is definitely outstripping its siblings that are growing elsewhere in the garden, by almost a factor of two on the height and up to 10 on the flower buds.
Once it flowers I expect it to generate a large amount of interest with the local wildlife.
I will endeavour to post pictures when it flowers.
Cheers Steve
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Post by stevebooth on Jul 27, 2016 12:38:25 GMT
Well it has now started to flower and is creating quite a buzz with the local insects, although after the dry weather we have had recently it is looking less than optimal, but it is more striking in reality than the pictures portray. Apologies for the quality of the pics it is a phone camera I’m afraid. I am presuming this little fellow is a Bombus pascuorum or carder bee but I am quite happy to be corrected. Cheers Steve
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Post by fredg on Aug 6, 2016 15:27:12 GMT
The bee was there, the teasel was there, I was there with a camera so here's the photo.
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Post by dragonseye on Sept 27, 2016 15:43:05 GMT
Magnificent photo, Fred.
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Post by stevebooth on Dec 29, 2016 14:53:05 GMT
I had intended to bring this thread to a conclusion over this Xmas holiday period: The heads were picked in late August, there being 88 heads in total, not all of which had made it to maturity, they were placed inverted, into open plastic shopping bags with the intent of catching the seeds and assessing the seed set. However after dragging the bags into the lounge and inverting them onto some newspaper laid on the floor, there was an almighty smell from bag 3 as I emptied it, of concentrated essence of flava flower and some brown, rancid liquid, which quite put me off.
Suffice to say there were a lot of seed, for the curious it is currently residing on a flower bed outside the back door, where the seed and large, smelly and slightly soggy ball of paper landed after I threw it out the door. The lounge now smells of bleach and pine anti bacteriological agent.
Cheers Steve
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Post by stevebooth on Jun 16, 2019 11:04:13 GMT
Some self set plants are growing in an area of poor soil that seldom grows anything of note, after the rain we have had these pictures are typical of the collection of creatures in the ‘soup’ collected in the leaf axils. Cheers Steve Attachments:
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Post by dvg on Jun 16, 2019 16:14:34 GMT
Interesting plant thread Steve.
Thanks for sharing!
dvg
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