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| This rather peculiar plant is in many respects the odd man out among the more commonly grown carnivorous plants, in its being found naturally in dry sandy soils. |
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| It occurs in Southern Spain, Portugal, and Northern Morocco, and is found around the coastal areas where it receives regular moisture from the nightly fogs. In appearence it produces an open rosette of long,linear leaves to about 20 centimeters in length, giving the overall appearence of a cluster of long pine needles. |
These leaves are vertical
when they first open out and gradually bend down to the horizontal by the time they brown and die off. The base of the plant is covered in the remains of the old leaves, and forms a sort of grass skirt with the rosette placed on the top. It is a stem forming plant, gradually becoming too tall to support it's own weight and sometimes falling over and growing in a prostrate manner with the crown being held upright.
The stem can grow to 1 meter in length. |
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| There is no dorment period as such, but in cultivation growth slows over the winter months, with the first signs of the emergence of flowers occuring sometimes as early as January. |
| The flowers are a beautiful sulphur yellow and can be 2.5 centimeters in diameter. They open for only a single day each and are self-fertile, therefore guaranteeing the production of seed 2-3 months later. The black pear shaped seed can be collected when the translucent seed capsule splits. |
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| Cultivation. |
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| This plant has an unfair reputation for being difficult to maintain for any length of time, but it's cultivation is actually simple. Because of the large stature of the plant and and it's dislike of unnecessary movement, it is best grown from seed and a full grown, flowering plant can be raised in one year. |
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There are different methods of cultivation, but the one I find the most successful is the germinate the seeds in those peat-pots one can find in the garden centre. They should be sown in a compost of equal parts moss peat and lime free horticultural sand, and buried to a depth of 5 millimetres. It is an idea to sow one plant to a pot to avoid any
disturbance which would occur when pricking out seedlings. |
| The seeds should be kept wet until they have produced their third or forth leaf, and then transplanted-complete in their peat pots-in to large 20 centimetre clay pots. Block the hole in the base of the pot with a couple of pieces of crock. The peat pots can be buried up to their rims in the same compost as above. The roots of the plant will then grow through the peat pot and in to the larger clay pot. |
| Position the plant in full direct sun and water from above with rain or distilled water. The compost should be allowed to dry somewhat between waterings, and in the winter months the time between waterings can be many weeks. However, do not allow your plants to dessicate. |
| It is tolerant of a wide range of temperatures and can survive 2 degrees celcius (36 degrees fahrenheit). |
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