Hi all,
I would like to show off the variation in Disa color on top of Table Mountain. I have selected only a few forms. In truth, no two plants are the same (unless they have fared very well and multiplied by stolons). I could do a similar thread based on petal/sepal shape but that would be boring.
The classic red form:
This plant has brilliant red sepals and a nice read hood.
Compare it to this one, an orange form:
This plant has done very well and each year I have gone up it was there. It is now a clump of about seven flowering plants. The pale pink one that follows is a single plant but there are other such pale pink plants elsewhere.
One also gets an orange-pink form:
Here the sepals have a pink flush but still with strong orange rather than red. Of course, there are plants which are red with a strong pink or magenta flush:
The above photos were taken in February. In March one can see Disa ferruginea all over the place:
If you keep your eyes wide open you may spot a Disa graminifolia or two.
(This is last year's photo, as this year's plants were not very photogenic.)
I have never seen the same plant flower twice. If you take a look at the next photo you will see a fat seed pod. It takes only a week or two (I guess) for the seed pod to swell to that size. Last year I tried to collect seed. Six weeks after hand pollination I went up the mountain and after much searching I eventually found the pollinated plant. The seed pod had dried out and the seed was gone and the stem withering. I suspect that the seed matures in as little as four weeks. Obviously, large resources are needed to develop seed that fast which is why, the tuberoids of these plants are HUGE. And putting all that energy into the seed development probably means this plant will not have stored up enough energy to flower for a while. One plant, kept in cultivation, never flowered for the 15 years that it was kept alive. It was collected just after flowering... It is my belief that these plants are very common but that finding one in flower is very rare. I doubt I will see the plants I saw this year in flower for a long long time.
The above blue Disa is not be confused with the blue drip Disa, Disa longicornu which flowers in profusion in December.
I would like to show off the variation in Disa color on top of Table Mountain. I have selected only a few forms. In truth, no two plants are the same (unless they have fared very well and multiplied by stolons). I could do a similar thread based on petal/sepal shape but that would be boring.
The classic red form:
This plant has brilliant red sepals and a nice read hood.
Compare it to this one, an orange form:
This plant has done very well and each year I have gone up it was there. It is now a clump of about seven flowering plants. The pale pink one that follows is a single plant but there are other such pale pink plants elsewhere.
One also gets an orange-pink form:
Here the sepals have a pink flush but still with strong orange rather than red. Of course, there are plants which are red with a strong pink or magenta flush:
The above photos were taken in February. In March one can see Disa ferruginea all over the place:
If you keep your eyes wide open you may spot a Disa graminifolia or two.
(This is last year's photo, as this year's plants were not very photogenic.)I have never seen the same plant flower twice. If you take a look at the next photo you will see a fat seed pod. It takes only a week or two (I guess) for the seed pod to swell to that size. Last year I tried to collect seed. Six weeks after hand pollination I went up the mountain and after much searching I eventually found the pollinated plant. The seed pod had dried out and the seed was gone and the stem withering. I suspect that the seed matures in as little as four weeks. Obviously, large resources are needed to develop seed that fast which is why, the tuberoids of these plants are HUGE. And putting all that energy into the seed development probably means this plant will not have stored up enough energy to flower for a while. One plant, kept in cultivation, never flowered for the 15 years that it was kept alive. It was collected just after flowering... It is my belief that these plants are very common but that finding one in flower is very rare. I doubt I will see the plants I saw this year in flower for a long long time.
The above blue Disa is not be confused with the blue drip Disa, Disa longicornu which flowers in profusion in December.
