Orchid Borealis

Utricularia blanchetii is found only in central Bahia , Brazil, and occurs in damp sand among rocks by streams (Taylor 1989).  The elevation range is 850-1750m.  This species belongs to section Aranella , in which 9 species are recognized, all from tropical South America with one species also occurs in Africa.  It is similar to  U. parthenopipes , which is also from Bahia, and often co-occur with U. blanchetii .  The lower lip (petal) of the corolla is supposed to be 10-15mm long, which is much longer than 4-6mm of  U. parthenopipes (Taylor 1989).  The lower lip of my plant is about 8-10mm, so it is a bit at the small end for U. blanchetii .  In addition to the flower size, the shapes of the upper lip and spur are different. Here is an excerpt of the Taylor's (1989) artificial key distinguishing these two similar species: Corolla 1cm long or longer; upper lip transversely oblong, c. 6mm wide; spur acute, somewhat longer than the lower lip ...

Plants are all potted up. I have always wanted to order Nepenthes from Wistuba in Germany.  I finally did it this fall!  I personally don't care about artificially created hybrids, and Wistuba has the widest selection of Nepenthes and Heliamphora species.  They have so many cool plants, so I had to watch out the budget and be selective.  I received the shipment 2 days ago!  Very excited!  Now all  Nepenthes are under CITES appendix II (some are under app. I).  But Wistuba has distributors in several countries including the USA.  So you don't have to go through the importation process by yourself.  You can order via their web page like domestic shopping. Wistuba ships the pooled orders to the US once a month, and the distributor takes care of the importation, and send the plants within the US.  It is a fairly good and simple system from the buyer's perspective.  It costs 60 Euro for documentation, international and dome...

The last couple weeks have been eventful for us. Unfortunately, I can't say that all of these events were nice; some events were unexpected and highly unpleasant.  My son, Taiga, got a second-degree burn on his thigh during the Memorial day camping in Anchorage.  This occurred 360 miles away from home, but it was fortunate that an emergency room was close to the campground.  I'm thankful that this didn't happen at a place where there is no hospital within a hundred miles (most place in Alaska, I think).  I appreciated all efforts of doctors and nurses who had to work during the holiday.   He could start to run after 1 week or so, and has been showing good recovery now. Although this was a painful experience for Taiga and us, I'm again amazed how tough the little boy is; he kept his spirit high, and his giggle was somewhat back by the next day.  We got to do some fun time fishing, biking, visiting a museum, and Chuck E. Cheeze's.  Particularly, Ima...