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  is it an Anubias?
From: Ferenc Lengyel <feri.lengyel at gmail.com> on 2011.06.10 at 19:40:26(22091)
Dear all,

I have bought a plant as an Anubias, but I am pretty sure that it is not an Anubias. What can it be? Some pictures of the plant (it is a compact, small plant in a 5 cm /2 inches/ diameter container):

adaxial leaf surface:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5818598645/in/photostream

abaxial leaf surface:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5818598037/in/photostream

whole plant:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5818592189/in/photostream

inflorescence:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5818591773/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5819156682/in/photostream/

inflorescence from above:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5819156838/in/photostream/

Ferenc

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From: Peter Boyce <phymatarum at googlemail.com> on 2011.06.11 at 02:17:33(22092)
Hi Ferenc,

This is a Schismatoglottis. It maybe S. roseospatha, but it is hard to tell since the inflorescence you depict is in fact a teratological artefact. The spathe has reverted to a a modified leaf. My guess is that the plant has been raised from tissue culture and is still affected by the chemicals used to induce multiple-shoot production. I aslo suspect that the plant may have been treated with chemical to compact its grwoth too.

It will be interesting to see what type of inflorescences it produces once the hormonal effects wear off.

Out of interest, where did you buy the plant?

Best

Peter

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From: Ferenc Lengyel <feri.lengyel at gmail.com> on 2011.06.11 at 07:34:25(22093)
Thank you Peter!

I am very sad to hear, that this compact growth is the result of hormonal treatments and tissue culture. I am desperately seeking tropical aroids in Europe which are natural species (not cultivars or man-made hybrids), but here in Hungary I can hardly get any. I know that tissue cultures can be established from species plants as well as cultivars, but I think that most of the plants produced this way are clones of selected cultivars or hybrids.

I decided to buy aquatic aroids as plants from the genera Cryptocoryne and Anubias are available here for aquarists, and I hoped that some of them are species plants. I bought the plant from a local (Hungarian) aquatic plant nursery (they write on their website that the parents of the Anubias plants they offer are from West African import, so I thought, they are not cultivars). But now it dosn't seem to be the case.

I bought nine "Anubias" plants from them (this was one of them). The other eight are really Anubias plants, but not the ones described by the seller. I think that the eight plants belong to not more than 4 species and varieties. The seller tried to send nine different looking plants, but definitely had no idea about their proper identity. It would not be a problem at all, if the plants were not cultivars. I will transplant all the plants, place them in my paludarium, and try to identify them after the hormones clear from them, they grow to their real form and develop normal inflorescences.

Anyway, I would be very happy to have a Schismatoglottis, if it was a pure species.

Ferenc

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From: Theodore Held <oppenhauser2001 at gmail.com> on 2011.06.11 at 18:06:04(22094)
Ferenc,

It looks like an Anubias except for the inflorescence. Can you dissect
away some of the spathe and show us the spadix? My experience with
Anubias is with varieties that do not hide the spadix.

I believe we have a couple of Anubias experts on this list. Perhaps
they can chime in.

Ted Held.

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From: Peter Boyce <phymatarum at googlemail.com> on 2011.06.12 at 06:25:54(22095)
Hi Ferenc,

The compact growth and deformed inflorescence may be the result of hormonal imbalance, but I am not saiying it is definitely. One think I am sure of is that this plant is from t/c and not from propagation via division. It is also certainly not direcrly from the wild since this species (it is cetainly a pure species and I am pretty sure it is S. roseospatha) originates only from a remote area of central Sarawak which is accessible only by local boat; certainly there is no one down there supplying commerciallly!

Good luck with your serach!

Peter

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From: Ferenc Lengyel <feri.lengyel at gmail.com> on 2011.06.12 at 10:03:54(22096)
Dear Ted,

Now I have removed the spathe, and took some photos:

The inflorescence cut open:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5823432735/in/photostream

The inflorescence cut open from side view:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5823432527/in/photostream/

The spathe without spadix (the contamination on the pic is a piece of the spathe, getting there from the scissors during cutting):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5823995274/in/photostream

The inflorescence is relatively small, but I think, it is a forced flowering, the result of hormonal treatment, as three of the Anubias plants which I got with the same shipment is developing an inflorescense too, though they are rather small.

Ferenc

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From: Ferenc Lengyel <feri.lengyel at gmail.com> on 2011.06.12 at 16:14:41(22097)

I forgot to mention that I can not see a geniculum at the junction of the leaf blades and petioles of the plant in question, though it is not sure as sometimes it is very hard for me to find it. I attach two pics of the leaf bases.

An off topic question: what is the plural form of "Anubias"? Sorry, English is not my mother tounge, it is just a working language for me.

Ferenc

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From: Ferenc Lengyel <feri.lengyel at gmail.com> on 2011.06.12 at 18:44:18(22098)
Thank you Peter! I hope, it will turn out to be pure S. roseospatha. The supplier I bought the plants from gets Cryptocorynes from Southeast Asia (maybe from Singapore?) and I guess, it might have been a "contamination" in a Cryptocoryne shipment.

Ferenc

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From: Peter Boyce <phymatarum at googlemail.com> on 2011.06.12 at 22:06:31(22099)
Dear Ferenc,

Well, I stand corrected, this IS an Anubis not a Schismatoglottis. Could you do an additional photo that shows the lower part of the petiole and the petiolar sheath.

We all learn constantly!

Peter

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From: hermine <hermine at endangeredspecies.com> on 2011.06.12 at 23:49:15(22100)
At 11:44 AM 6/12/2011, you wrote:

Thank you Peter! I hope, it will
turn out to be pure S. roseospatha. The supplier I bought the
plants from gets Cryptocorynes from Southeast Asia (maybe from
Singapore?) and I guess, it might have been a "contamination"
in a Cryptocoryne shipment.

Ferenc

I believe these have been tissue cultured since Mother was a girl. I
remember they cost more in forty year old dollars than they do
today.

where is a source of aquatic plants such as these, mail order or
somewhere in local california?

I maintained aquaria as a child for the purpose of growing the
PLANTS.

hermine

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From: Ferenc Lengyel <feri.lengyel at gmail.com> on 2011.06.13 at 09:20:13(22101)
I would like to excuse myself. It may be a kind of rudeness that I ask the list members to identify my plant and I do not give all the informations necessary for proper identification. And I know that this list is mainly for discussion of scientific questions, not for identification of a commersially available tissue cultured plant.

I made some pics of the petiole bases:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5828133226/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5827584719/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5828132470/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5828132106/in/photostream

But I think, I should really wait untill the artificial hormones clear out of the plant...

Ferenc

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From: Ferenc Lengyel <feri.lengyel at gmail.com> on 2011.06.13 at 14:24:54(22102)
I have to correct myself. Examining my other Anubias plants I had to realize that I am very bad in identifying genicula. So my unknown plant must have genicula at the top of the petioles, but I can not see them. So it might be an Anubias with an abnormally long spathe, and, unfortunately, I do not have a Schismatoglottis.

Ferenc

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From: Theodore Held <oppenhauser2001 at gmail.com> on 2011.06.13 at 15:36:17(22103)
Ferenc,

I think Peter is probably right that the plant might be an Anubias
after all. (Plural is simply Anubias, the way I speak English.)

In my other Anubias, the spathe tissue opens widely flat and the
spadix sticks up as in your denuded picture. Of course, I only have a
couple of varieties (and maybe only one). But they do come from Africa
and the fact that your supplier has a bunch of others leads me to
believe that they are likely sourced with your other Anubias and not
an oddball from an Asian shipment.

As the discussion has indicated, if growth hormones have been used
they will eventually wear off. Part of my Cryptocoryne presentation
includes pictures of a reluctant bloomer that I induced to bloom with
GA3. It produced a succession of three blooms. The first was wildly
distorted. The second was less so. The third was comfortably in the
range of Cryptocoryne wendtii (a complex of at least 10 to 20
different cultivars). It took nearly a year for the GA3 to wear off.
The plant has never bloomed since the GA3 wore off. The GA3, curiously
to me, did not produce odd leaves.

Come to the IAS Annual Show in September and I'll show you my
presentation on Crypts, including the pictures I described.

This invitation is open to anyone else, too. Come to the show and meet
Peter Boyce, as well. Or maybe come primarily to see Peter and
secondarily meet with me.

Ted Held.

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From: "Marek Argent" <abri1973 at wp.pl> on 2011.06.13 at 18:39:00(22104)
Dear Ferenc and Peter,

I see that the male flowers are formed in star-shaped synandria, and they don't produce a lot of pollen as Schismatoglottis does. Maybe this is a cultivar of Anubias? Who knows?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lengyelf/5823995274/in/photostream/
http://araceum.abrimaal.pro-e.pl/anubias/nana.htm

Yours Doubtfully,

Marek

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From: Ferenc Lengyel <feri.lengyel at gmail.com> on 2011.06.14 at 17:24:45(22105)
So it is an Anubias. Thank you for all the answers. I don't mind that this discussion went towards Schismatoglottis, as now I have read a lot about the beautiful aroids of Southeast Asia.

Dear Ted, thank you for the invitation, but as I live on the other side of the pond, I do not visit the IAS shows, unfortunately.

Ferenc

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