FlyTrapCare Forums

-What is the difference between winter rest and dormancy?
-What is a warm temperate?
-What is a cold temperate?
-Are roridula tropical?

I think people tend to use the term "winter rest" more for plants that just slow down in winter rather than going fully dormant, like Cephlotus. It's basically the same thing though.

Warm temperate plants are ones that experience significant seasonal change, but rarely if ever are exposed to freezing temperatures in the wild. It's usually used to refer to Pinguicula species that grow in the far southeast US, the Caribbean, and a few other places. It could be argued that many subtropical plants are actually warm temperate but I think the main distinction is that warm temperates need the seasonal change (and that "winter rest") to stay healthy. I would consider Cephalotus to be warm temperate for this reason (an idea I've been thinking about to explain why so many people have trouble with Cephalotus plants.)

Cold temperate plants are ones that come from high latitudes, where winters are unusually long and so need a very long dormancy period. These plants tend to be very difficult to cultivate since very few people live in a climate similar enough to their natural environment and trying to provide dormancy in a refrigerator for that long is very difficult. Temperate alpine plants are similar but experience these harsh conditions due to growing at high elevation.

Roridula would be considered subtropical. South Africa experiences much more seasonal variation than most people think and many places in the country do have frost in the winter, though freezing temperatures will kill growth points on Roridula plants. I've actually been keeping my Roridula gorgonias in a cold location over winter and it has rarely experienced temperatures above 10C since October or November though I don't think this is necessary to keep the plant healthy. It's developing a flower bud right now.

I sometimes don't like using these terms because they are so fluid and inexact, but it is how the current, general, system of communicating in the carnivorous plant community is set up. I've only really seen the terms "warm" and "cold" tacked onto Pinguicula. Really, the difference between the two is that the former do not form hibernacula and do not experience freezing, except for the occasional frost or light freeze, while the latter will experience deep freezes and be resting under snow for most of the year. I think "warm" temperate is misleading, as it seems to give the impression that the so-called warm temperate Pinguicula experience only slightly-milder-than-tropucal temps during the winter. In actuallity, both the warm temperates from the south-east US and south-east Europe will generally experience day temps below 60 during winter, with night temps close to freezing. Day temps, from the weather info I've found, can be into the 70s, but still often drop well into the 40s at night.

During the summer, warm temperate Pinguicula generally experience very hot temps compared to the cold temperates (days in the 80s and occasionally 90s, versus days in the 70s and 60s).

Benurmanii wrote:I've only really seen the terms "warm" and "cold" tacked onto Pinguicula.

I've seen the term applied to D. filiformis red forms, D. tracyi, Drosophyllum, and some D. binata forms too. The term "intermediate" I think is also interchangeable with "warm temperate."