Byblis gigantea

Byblis gigantea flower

Byblis gigantea is a carnivorous plant species of the genus rainbow plants in the family of the rainbow plants plants ( Byblidaceae ). It was first described in 1839 by John Lindley and is one of two multi-year, Western Australia Byblisarten, which are summarized as " Byblis gigantea complex".

Features

Byblis gigantea is a perennial, usually unbranched growing shrub and grows from a thick and fleshy rhizome. It reaches a height of up to 60 centimeters, making it the largest member of the genus.

Byblis gigantea grows and blooms in the winter, fall over the summer their habitats completely dry. This time, the plants survive underground, above ground and die from driving until the first rains in the fall and again from the rhizome.

The yellowish- green leaves are two to four inches long, straight, kidney-shaped in cross-section and ends in a thickening at the blade tip. On the surface they are hairless, but densely covered with stalked glands that secrete at the edges and the bottom of a sticky liquid.

Flowers

From leaf axils grow above the sheet approach flower stalks, which hardly differ from the leaves, however, are noticeably shorter with 15 centimeters. At their peak bloom from September to January ( summer in Australia ) terminal fivefold single flowers, only a few but at the same time.

The lance-shaped, hairy sepals are 8 to 15 millimeters long and at base 2.5 to 3.5 millimeters wide. The reverse- egg-shaped petals are 15-20 mm long and up to 15 millimeters wide and serrated on the outer edge. They are light to dark purple, very rarely found white or cream-colored flowering specimens. The stamens are 2.5 to 3.5 mm, the anthers 5-6 mm long and yellow with a brown tip. The white pen is 7-9 millimeters long.

Byblis gigantea are their pollen freely only by the sound frequency of an approaching pollinator.

Fruit and seeds

The 5 to 7 mm long and 3.5 to 4 millimeters wide seed capsule is broadly ovate and zweifächrig, by desiccation she rips open gradually, so that the seeds contained fall to the ground ( Barochorie ). The black, 1 mm long seeds are longitudinally furrowed with clearly protruding surveys. The species is pyrophil, the sprouting of the seed is lifted only by substances in the smoke of the annual bush fires.

Dissemination, risk and habitat

The species has a very small distribution area in Western Australia, it is endemic to Perth, where it grows in sandy soils or heathland. Allen Lowrie and John Godfrey Conran recorded 2002 only four sites of the species, all near the Canning River, another was later at Perth Airport known. The team also pointed out that Byblis gigantea was undoubtedly more widespread well before the founding of the city of Perth.

Until 2000 B. gigantea was with the whole genus in Appendix II of CITES, at the request of Australia's protection was lifted. Byblis gigantea is on the red list of the Internation Union for Conservation of Nature and is considered critically endangered.

System

2002 B. lamellata was separated as a separate species of Byblis gigantea. Was mainly due to differences in seed shape, while the seeds of B. gigantea are longitudinally furrowed with clearly protruding surveys, the furrowed lamellarly of B. lamellata. As a further diagnostic features, the disjunct distribution areas, the different re- sprouting and varying site conditions, Byblis gigantea lamellata serve preferred drier habitats than Byblis.

Swell

• John G. Conran, Allen Lowrie, Jessica Moyle - Croft: A Revision Of Byblis ( Byblidaceae ) in South - Western Australia. In: Nuytsia. 15 (1). 2002: pp. 11-19.
• Allen Lowrie: Carnivorous Plants of Australia - Vol 3 Nedlands, Western Australia, 1998