Hydnophytum caminiferum and some other ant plants

[Z_Y]

Here's some pics of my import ant plants. I guess this will be part 1 as I have more pics than it allows me to put in one post:

Myrmecodia horrida (Dauro, PNG):
Currently I'm keeping this one with my H. camnis for the cold temps.

Myrmecodia spec. nov. (Mt. Kaindi, PNG)
I had some seedlings of this one from a berry trade but the seedlings all died of damp off despite having 7 sprouts. 2 are still hanging on but only their caudex remains. It could be because I kept them too warm.

Hydnophytum spec. Malaysia, Peninsula
Nothing too special about this guy IMO

Hydnophytum spec. Timika (wavy embossed leaves)
This one has some really cool leaves that are textured. The caudex looks a bit beat up though.

Myrmecodia spec. (Spiny, Pink Fruit)
A pretty common one most people have

Myrmecodia erinacea (broad leaves, unclear origin)

Myrmecodia platytyrea (green petioles)

Myrmecodia spec. (Central Luzon)
I got this one by mistake as I already have two, but it was really discounted (like $12) so I guess it's fine. Also the large one I had before on the right developed a bit of rot so I had to do some surgery on it. You can see the large scar in the picture. I'm not sure if I'm out of the woods on the wound rotting yet, but I guess it's good I have another backup now.

Myrmecodia spec. Doormans Top, 1600 m ASL
This one probably wont make it as it got crushed during shipment and it has a large split through the whole plant from top to bottom. I've planted it up just in case but it feels a bit soft already. This one was expensive too. Fortunately AW set up a replacement but it'll be sent next year.

 

[Z_Y]

Part 2:

Anthorrhiza recurvispina (Rossel Island, PNG)
I really like the look of this one, so hopefully it lives. I already have the Missima Island one so it'll be cool to compare. This one was quite large, but the caudex looks really nice and potato shaped.

I hope it's as prolific as the other Anthorrhizas I have at making berries, as I would always like to have backup plantlets:

I also got some ant ferns:

Lecanopteris luzonensis AW-01
The new one I got is on the left, seems like a baby plant still. I already have a L. luzonensis pictured on the right but it came from a source that doesn't specialize in ant plants so I wasn't sure if it was the true species. The rhizome on the older one is much more robust though but perhaps it's just an age thing.

Lecanopteris curtisii (Sumatra) AW-01
The new one I got is on the left. It lost all it's leaves, but hopefully it bounces back. I believe this should be the same as L. deparioides, which I also have from AW. Although the L. deparioides I have is much smaller (pictured on the right).

And not part of the import but just some small updates:
My dish of Missima Island A. recurvispina (the green ones at the top of the image) and A. bracteosa seedlings. Not sure when to pot them to actual moss yet but they seem to be doing ok. The bigger ones are around 2 months old now. I've harvested some more seeds from both mother plants along with another M. spec Siasiada berry, and I'll try them all on coffee paper again too.

In terms of losses, I lost my M. North Sumatra mother plant, so it's seedlings will have to replace it. It just suddenly became soft and rotted through, but I suspect it never recovered from my earlier over-fertilization attempt. I should have flushed the pot sooner. Another loss was my Myrmecodia beccarii (Hull River, Australia) pictured below. I guess it's not too bad as the Hull River M. beccarii is kind of common. Looking at my old videos, it came with a darker spot on the caudex and that was the root of the rot. After removing the rot there isn't enough material left for it to recover. I took a screenshot of the video I made of my first import showing the dark spot that I overlooked.

 

[jeff]

Very beautiful plant

 

[King Karnivores]

I have M. horrida from AW as well. It arrived in September and I've been keeping it highland and it seems to be doing decent. Will post some pics when I get the chance
25C days 13C nights 80-85% RH

 

[Z_Y]

So some small updates:
In terms of good news my seedlings are still doing ok. Here's the Missima Island A. recurvispina (the 7 green ones up top) and A. bracteosa (The 8 brown ones and 3 green ones on the bottom) in the dish, they seem nice and round. The larger ones are ~3 months old:

Also one of my older potted set of A. bracteosa was overrun by moss. Here's me halfway through removing them from the moss. They seem nice and round too. I think these guys are ~4 months 20 days old, but they look largely the same.

The M. platytyrea (Sepik River, PNG) I got from my first import has grown noticeably in size:

The M. schlechteri subsp. pendula Sagarai Valley, PNG seedlings I've shown pictures of from before have gotten much larger, here's one of the seedlings. I still have several, so far I've only lost that one that I posted about earlier:

And a couple random pics:
M. erinacea

A. recurvispina Rossel Island has been flowering a lot. I see maybe a few developing fruits too:

In terms of bad news, the M. beccarii Hull River from the previous post did not make it. And I also have a new unfortunately issue, my M. bullosa (Sorong, Irian Jaya) developed some rot that I had to cut out. I was kind of bummed about this since it was such a handsome looking specimen.

Here's the part I had to cut from the backside:

I guess on the bright side I caught it early, so hopefully it can still be saved. I have flushed it with a bunch of fungicide and I'm letting it dry a bit. Not sure what caused the rot, maybe it was too cold in it's corner as I didn't place it on a heat mat, but the temperature of the whole tent doesn't get that cold so I'm not sure.

And the final bit of bad news is my L. spinosa did not make it. It never really grew since I got it from AW and today I saw it go soft and brown. I'm not sure if I kept it too cold or not cold enough. I guess I'll try again next year.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

All in all, you've got some nice growing there. I have a feeling that slower growth is somewhat protective of rot.

 

[jeff]

very good news

and the H.caminiferum ?

 

[Z_Y]

The H. caminiferum is still the same old, they seem to grow insanely slow. I do see a few new leaves here and there. I do worry that my shorter one seems a bit more wrinkly than before at the base. I'll have to keep an eye on it, if it's because of my previous fertilization it could be because the soil still has a lot of the salts and the plant cannot uptake fluids effectively anymore. Or it could be rot, I'll probably try a repot and inspection once I get the chance.

I've also had another loss of a H. radicans? "pericles pass", the caudex seems to have rotted away. I did save the stem portion as it had a lot of adventurous roots on it, so maybe it can be regrown from the stem. In any case it wasn't a costly loss, but still unfortunate. The stem's center also has a tiny brown midpoint all the way through, I'm not sure if that means it's completely lost or if it's just structured that way.

In terms of my actual H. radicans, both my "Mullens Harbor" and "Big Hole, Wondiwoi, Irian Jaya" seem to have shed all their leaves. I've no idea if this is just seasonal, or if they don't like their conditions. I'm also not sure if this should grow as a highland or as a lowland.

I've also had some M. tuberosa and S. major and S. huxleyana shed some leaves. The S. huxleyana has since recovered, but you can see the old stems it shed still attached. I forgot to take a pic of the S. major but it looks similar as the S. huxleyana just without leaves.

In better news my H. formicarum "Singapore" has made new fruits. I harvested one (the other one seemed firmly attached still) and got 2 seeds, so I get to try again on these. There also seems to be several more fruits in development.

And my A. bracteosa Normanby PNG also made more seeds, this time I got 14 seeds from 2 fruits, so it's been very productive. I'm going to start fertilizing one of the coffee paper sown seedlings with some 200ppm fertilizer as a test.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

You've got some very interesting plants there. This is like grafting difficult Cacti, lots of tries and only some successes. Still if they weren't difficult, we'd probably be bored. Keep posting

 

[jeff]

What kind of M. tuberosa do you have?

 

[Z_Y]

It was:
M. tuberosa Armata
M. tuberosa Borneo

However unfortunately I went in and examined the plants, a lot of them have rot issues beneath the soil line, which explains why the tuberosas were probably dropping the leaves. The M. tuberosa Borneo, M. platytyrea subsp. antoinii "Mossman Gorge", and H. formicarum Singapore all had large rot spots. On examination, it seems like the fertilization from previously caused the top layer of sphagnum to die. You can see it visually in some of the pictures where the sphagnum looks like green sludge. I think this layer caused the area beneath to be anaerobic and caused rot. I haven't examined the H. radicans yet, but that sphagnum looks more ok.

The H. formicarum Singapore seems large enough that after doing some surgery it might survive, plus at least I have several seeds now. I had to remove a significant amount of material though. The other tuberosa and platytyrea may be lost. I'm slowing going through and repotting all the pots with dead sphagnum to examine some more. I saw some tiny rot spots on my M. rumphii but it was really small so it should be ok.

Two additional variables may have affected this, one is I added a heat mat in december and I noticed while repotting the soil is kind of warm. Not sure if this would accelerate the decomposition or not. The other possibly more major issue was sometime early December I had to leave for a work trip for a week, and maybe before I left I watered them too much. All the affected plants seem to be concentrated on one tray, so maybe this tray got a bit more water than the rest.

 

[Z_Y]

Here's there results:

I'm going to give another day for the cuts to callus over and then try to pot them and hope that the adventurous roots still on the caudex may help them recover, but I don't have high hopes M. tuberosa Borneo, M. platytyrea subsp. antoinii, and M. albertisii sub. Incompta. The Hydnophytum formicarum seems like it may be rescuable.

 

[jeff]

The M. tuberosa from Borneo are generally "armata" species.
The Rumphii species are also M. tuberosa.

Otherwise, I hope for your sake that everything will be back to normal this year with these rot.

Personally, I don't use sphagnum moss, just peat.

 

[VarunA]

Awesome plants. I missed out on Hydnophytum puffii from tails and scales once. Was a shame…it looked like an awesome species. Do you grow that one as well?

 

[jeff]

for my part yes see here

note that the name of H. perangustum = H.puffii

 

[VarunA]

Beauty. such a nice plant. Would you know of any Canadian sources for this plant?

 

[Z_Y]

I don't have H. puffii myself but I've seen it for sale on ebay/etsy in the US from time to time. I don't really know about a Canadian source, I've only seen Brad's greenhouse sell some AW imports but he doesn't have H. puffii specifically afaik.

As for another small unfortunate update, My A. chrysacantha and the smaller H. camniferum that recently became wrinkly has also suffered rot. I have dug it up and cut off all the rotted portions but the damage is significant for both. For the H. cam I have bagged it up so it maintains humidity but I doubt it can recover as it not longer has any root area. I also saw it actually had no roots, so ever since I got it the plant never established itself. Perhaps it had a rot area from the start that I wasn't experienced enough to notice when I first got it. The A. chrysacantha was also unfortunate as it was a nice looking plant, although after cutting it some roots still remain so there's a chance it can stay alive for future fruits.

I also repotted the taller H. cam in the meantime, and that one seems fine. I also saw a small amount of new roots on the larger one so it seems more healthy.

For all my repotting I'm using a much less sphagnum heavy mix, so mostly perlite and bark and just at the very edge of the pot I'll have a bit of sphagnum to retain moisture.

I also went over and examined most of my other plants for repotting into more airy mixes as a precaution. I did notice I had a few larger plants like my Rossel Island A. recurvispina actually set fruit but it was in a position I couldn't see so I didn't catch the first few it set and those have since dried. I do see several swelling ovaries though so perhaps some more fruits are coming in the future.

While examining most of my plants, I also went over several flowers and found that a few had some white pollen available. I've proceeded with some manual self pollination to try to get even more fruits.