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Remusatia vivipara (Lodd.) Schott |
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This page contains a number of rather large images of R.vivipara, notes
on growing R.vivipara from bulbis, and an article
about R.vivipara from rom Aroideana, Vol,6, No.1, reproduced
with permission from IAS (the article has been scanned by Phil Mueller).
Another page has some photos of the tubers,
even pinkier than Arisaema candidissimum.
Other pages with this species:
Taking care of bulbils
Plant in about 1/4 inch deep in moist peat moss (I used Jiffy pellets
for my first batch). Dab a little fungicide on them just to be safe, keep
moist and warm (70F or so). Within a few weeks you should see the leaves,
and then start fertilizing, transplant to larger pots, etc. The soil should
be moisture-retentive, fertile, slightly on the acidic side. In winter,
they may go dormant in cool climates.
Within a year, the seedlings should produce leaves about 6-8 inches
long, and perhaps a few stolons, within 2-3 years, they should get to 2-footer
leaves and lots of stolons with zillions of bulbils.
Remusatia vivipara was hardy for me in North Carolina, in a warmer part
of zone 7b, through a mild winter. The dormant tubers typically wake up
some time in May, unless you are in California, in which case they wake
up in mid-March.
Note: if anybody else out there thinks he/she is growing Colocasia
affinnis v. jenningsii from 'seeds' acquired from Chiltern, you're most
likely growing Remusatias, too. The little red hairy 'seeds' are actually
bulbils (the red color coming from some fungicide).
Aroid
Profile Number 8
Remusatia vivipara
Stu Cramer
In 1978 1 received a plant that was labeled Gonatanthus.
Believing this to be an error, I wrote to my friend, Dr. Richard H. Eyde,
Curator, Dept. of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institute. Dr. Eyde obtained some of the following information from Dr.
Dan Nicolson.
Differentiating Gonatanthus and Remusatia with
inflorescences is a snap. In Gonatanthus the ovules are basal and the spathe
is erect, whitish and 5-6 inches long. In Remusatia the ovules are parietal
and the spathe is deflexed, yellowand only 3 inches long, Also Remusatia
flowers before or with the new leaves and Gonatanthus flowers after the
leaves are well developed.
Unfortunately neither flowers very often, especially
in cultivation, and both commonly reproduce by scaly bulbils borne on a
special stem (roots?). The illustration of Remusatia vivipara in Exotica
(P.1504) is an example of this special vegetative state. Unfortunately
none has really worked out how these genera can be identified in the bulbiliferous
condition.
Glancing through specimens here in the U.S. National
Herbarium, I would say that Remusatia vivipara has rather larger and thicker
leaves than Gonatanthus; I'd call their texture cabbage-like while I'd
call the leaves of Gonatanthus membranous.
The scales of the bulbils seem to be much longer
in Gonatanthus than in Remusatia where they are shorter (like 1/2 inch
and only slightly curved).
I am now confident that the plant I obtained in
1978 is R. vivipara. The inflorescence pictured was raised from a bulbil
of this 1978 specimen and is the first to flower. Graf places the habitat
of R. vivipara in the Himalayas and India. However, A Dictionary of the
Flowering Plants and Fems by J. C.Willis gives it a wider distribution
and a further description. "Remusatia Schott. Araceae. Africa, Himalyas
to Formosa. R. vivipara (Lodd.) Schott, has a tuber from which arises leaves
and simple upright stems bearing scale- leaves in the axils of which are
bulbils covered with hooked cataphylls, which serve to disperse them when
mature. R. vivipara rarely produces inflorescences in the wild state."
The plant pictured went dormant after a very brief
temperature drop into the 40's and was placed in a dry section of the shadehouse.
Bulbils were removed from the stems in November and the first inflorescence
appeared in December, the second inflorescence in March. Potting media
similar to the 'Selby Mix' was used.
Other pages with this species:
All photos Copyright © 1995-1997 Krzysztof Kozminski
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