Helonias bullata West Virginia Swamp Pink
Mar 18, 2024 12:17:24 GMT -5
hcarlton, DirtyDivisions, and 2 more like this
Post by meizzwang on Mar 18, 2024 12:17:24 GMT -5
Also known as the swamp pink, Helonias bullata is a rare and threatened plant that has a beautiful pink inflorescence. It also reportedly has a pungent, spicy fragrance! In the wild, the plants flower during February thru April-ish, although flowering time greatly depends on the weather and temperature. Interestingly, you'll often see plants in full bloom having really ragged looking leaves: this is because the previous season's leaves last quite a while! When it freezes or gets damaged by rain/full sun, the leaves get messed up easily! During the peak of their bloom, the current season's new leaves are just emerging!
The plants require a winter dormancy and emerge from an underground rhizome, which can be divided to make more plants. It is still poorly understood what triggers flowering, but most likely it's due to reaching a certain vegetative maturity, having good growth momentum the previous year, being healthy during that whole time, experiencing a decrease in photoperiod during the fall and experiencing a proper winter dormancy period.
Helonias bullata is typically found growing in part to full shade: during the winter, a lot of the trees that otherwise shade the plants will lose their leaves and give the plants more direct sunlight. As spring arrives, the trees cause deeper shading. Sphagnum is commonly seen growing alongside this plant, indicating they require nutrient poor, acidic soils. Because of their propensity to self pollinate, this species is vulnerable to inbreeding depression. The seeds mature relatively quickly and are reportedly only viable for a short period of time. They can float on water, which allows them to be dispersed downstream, thereby helping the species proliferate in new environments.
As of 2024, these are super challenging to acquire in the US, but the genetics have have fallen into some motivated hands, so that will change hopefully in the near future.
Much like Sarracenia, the species is threatened because of habitat loss, habitat alternation, unscrupulous collecting, and of course the elephant in the room, climate change which is like habitat loss. Like carnivorous plants, they appear to grow in nutrient poor soils and prefers to have the soil fully hydrated at all times. They are often times found growing right on the side of springs and in boggy areas.
As I learn more about this species, I'll post updates but what I can say so far is that out of what appeared to be many hundreds of seeds, only a few of them sprouted! They didn't require any stratification, and I have them growing fully protected indoors under lights since their rate of survival with slugs, pill bugs, birds, and all the enemies of Mike Wang that live outside is pretty low otherwise.
So far, they seem to be growing relatively fast! These seedlings are almost 3 months old and for comparison, the sarracenia seedlings that germinated at the same time are about 3X smaller! They were sown directly on 100% peat, were not buried as the seeds require light to germinate, and only given reverse osmosis water so far. I haven't fed them yet but they probably need a weak application of maxsea 1-2X a months, the leaves are starting to look a little chlorotic.... they will get fed soon! Pics taken 3/18/24:
To be continued....
The plants require a winter dormancy and emerge from an underground rhizome, which can be divided to make more plants. It is still poorly understood what triggers flowering, but most likely it's due to reaching a certain vegetative maturity, having good growth momentum the previous year, being healthy during that whole time, experiencing a decrease in photoperiod during the fall and experiencing a proper winter dormancy period.
Helonias bullata is typically found growing in part to full shade: during the winter, a lot of the trees that otherwise shade the plants will lose their leaves and give the plants more direct sunlight. As spring arrives, the trees cause deeper shading. Sphagnum is commonly seen growing alongside this plant, indicating they require nutrient poor, acidic soils. Because of their propensity to self pollinate, this species is vulnerable to inbreeding depression. The seeds mature relatively quickly and are reportedly only viable for a short period of time. They can float on water, which allows them to be dispersed downstream, thereby helping the species proliferate in new environments.
As of 2024, these are super challenging to acquire in the US, but the genetics have have fallen into some motivated hands, so that will change hopefully in the near future.
Much like Sarracenia, the species is threatened because of habitat loss, habitat alternation, unscrupulous collecting, and of course the elephant in the room, climate change which is like habitat loss. Like carnivorous plants, they appear to grow in nutrient poor soils and prefers to have the soil fully hydrated at all times. They are often times found growing right on the side of springs and in boggy areas.
As I learn more about this species, I'll post updates but what I can say so far is that out of what appeared to be many hundreds of seeds, only a few of them sprouted! They didn't require any stratification, and I have them growing fully protected indoors under lights since their rate of survival with slugs, pill bugs, birds, and all the enemies of Mike Wang that live outside is pretty low otherwise.
So far, they seem to be growing relatively fast! These seedlings are almost 3 months old and for comparison, the sarracenia seedlings that germinated at the same time are about 3X smaller! They were sown directly on 100% peat, were not buried as the seeds require light to germinate, and only given reverse osmosis water so far. I haven't fed them yet but they probably need a weak application of maxsea 1-2X a months, the leaves are starting to look a little chlorotic.... they will get fed soon! Pics taken 3/18/24:
To be continued....