Eustephia darwinii

Bruce Schroder bruceandjill.schroder@gmail.com
Fri, 18 Nov 2016 13:30:26 PST
Rimmer - I too am a bit confused re the growth habit of this species.  I
was given a young 2 year old seedling from a friend earlier this year.  It
has been in leaf the whole time here in the southern hemisphere over our
winter which has confused me as I thought it was a summer grower as well.

I was in Peru in September and was lucky enough to see mature plants
flowering when we were at Machu Pichu.  With no leaves visible at all,
flowering stems were appearing out of rock crevices and similar very dry
and well drained locations.  Although it was late winter in Peru as well at
the time, winters tend to be quite dry with most of the rain coming in late
spring and summer so I presume the flowering spikes would soon be followed
by a flush of leaf growth, supporting the notion that they are summer
growers.  Perhaps mine (and the rest of the batch my friend has) will
settle into a summer only growth pattern once mature.

Whilst in Peru, I also saw Eustephia kawidei flowering in the most
inhospitable hot and dry, exposed positions.  Truly beautiful flowers and
oh how I wish I could have been there at seed set!

With respect to the offsets, this seems to be similar to the habit of a
Pyrolirion another friend is growing.  She advised that small corm like
offsets with no roots or shoots where produced in abundance at the base of
the pot.  I was given a few of these and now as the weather is warming up,
they appear to be "germinating" rather than sprouting.  I have planted them
like seeds close to the surface of my gravelly mix.

Bruce Schroder
Melbourne, Australia



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