Sunday, April 21, 2013

Sarracenia leucophylla 'Tarnok' Update

This monstrose Sarracenia leucophylla was discovered 30 years ago by Coleman Tarnok in Baldwin County, Alabama. Mine's a little young, so I don't have pictures of the flower that makes this S. leucophylla unique but take a look at the ICPS cultivar registration for pictures: A New Cultivar of Sarracenia Leucophylla Raf. 

If you remember, about a month ago I got this plant as a small rhizome. Another month later, the 1st pitcher has already opened.


It's making juvenile pitchers, so I might have a few years to go for a flower.


Everyone in their window box. My typical VFT is going to flower soon. If you enlarge the picture you can see the stalk, but it's not much to look at yet.


Dionaea muscipula 'Akai Ryu' has come out of dormancy and started putting out some small traps too.


I also got this Sarracenia flava var. rubricorpora so the S. leucophylla can have something to be tall with. It's just breaking dormancy and has a flower bud growing at the moment. It''s mature so the pitchers it puts out this year should be much much larger. Both these species can be found growing as far south as Northern Florida naturally, so I figure they should do well here.


It's going to be a good summer for carnivores here.

6 comments:

  1. Wow, very cool indeed. I can't wait to see the flower on it when you do get one.

    What do you mean by a Juvenile Pitcher? It looks like the ones all of mine have always grown.

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    1. It's about 2 years away from being mature, by the look of how small and thin the pitcher is. It'll look pretty much the same but be much larger in a few years from now.

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  2. You link isn't working for me :-/

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  3. You have a wonderful blog - I remember re-starting my Sarracenia collection in an apartment, and I hope you get as much enjoyment from them as I did. With you tarnok - it is a little thin because it is a spring pitcher. Leucophylla typically put up a few thin pitchers like this during spring, before (depending on your area's humidity) going on to produce broad, strap-like leaves through midsummer. Sometime after midsummer, they will produce very large, broad mouthed pitchers like what you see in the books. If your part of Florida is frost free, the pitchers will keep through a good part of the winter. The white parts of the pitcher may also become very red with the cold. My sole remaining tarnok pitcher is still somewhat presentable, even after a couple of weeks of 32F to 28F minimums.
    Happy growing!

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    1. Thank you for the compliments! Thanks for the information too, they're awfully floppy at the moment as compared to my flava and that would explain why. I've had only a S. purpurea ssp. venosa for many years, just starting to get into collecting some Florida species that I can keep outside all year. We do occasionally get frost here, but not more than a few hours worth at night, on occasion, from what I hear (zone 9b?) I'm also growing them on a deck, 3 stories up, so no frost up here even after the one night I saw it on the ground this winter. This winter will be the 1st I try and give them their full dormancy here, so I hope it's acceptable and not too warm!

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