FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I noticed another interesting characteristic on this clone tonight that seems to be appearing in all of the new traps. It has extra trigger hairs that set right near the rim of the trap. I've not tested them to see if they function like the main trigger hairs (cause the trap to close after being touched twice within 20 seconds or so), but I'll investigate at some point.

Here are a couple of shots showing the extra trigger hairs:

Maybe it will be an extra sensitive trap.

I find this quite interesting. It really is natural selection in action. If the extra trigger hairs are in fact active, it could see the plant being over sensitive as Dionae suggested. In the wild, it could mean that the trap is accidently activated very often or activated prematurely which would not be advantageous for the plant, hence forth not being as succesful in nature at the tradition "three-pronged-position".

I know I'm woffling on a bit, but I just find mutations and the resulting natural selection interesting

I found this more of an advantage because the plant is able to react faster with more trigger hairs because the extra hair will help it to cath more insects, if insects stop by, but do not touch the trigger hairs that are in the middle(regular VFT), it will take the sugar that the trap produces in the corners, and then leave(without the plant obtaining the food), while with the extra hairs on more sides, this means no scape to an insect!(this unmaed seedling)

BenWilliam wrote:In the wild, it could mean that the trap is accidently activated very often or activated prematurely which would not be advantageous for the plant

That may be true; however, jht-union also has a good point. In plants with large traps, I have often observed insects sipping the nectar and walking along the edges of the trap without ever touching one of the more commonly distributed, centrally located trigger hairs. The particular mutation on this sawtooth plant, with trigger hairs very near the trap margin, might allow the trap to catch insects it would normally miss (if the hairs are sensitive), so in some cases might be advantageous for the plant.

This unusual seedling is still a young plant. I personally think that there's a good chance that as the plant matures it may either lose the extra trigger hairs, or they will move downward and more toward the center of the trap, where often more than 3 trigger hairs may appear (sometimes 5 or 6). If the plant continues to produce extra trigger hairs near the trap margin and cilia as it matures, it will be a very interesting mutation.

Steve_D wrote:That may be true; however, jht-union also has a good point. In plants with large traps, I have often observed insects sipping the nectar and walking along the edges of the trap without ever touching one of the more commonly distributed, centrally located trigger hairs. The particular mutation on this sawtooth plant, with trigger hairs very near the trap margin, might allow the trap to catch insects it would normally miss (if the hairs are sensitive), so in some cases might be advantageous for the plant.

I too thought that it might be very advantageous to the plant to have trigger hairs along the edge like that. Like Steve, I've noticed that insects commonly sip the nectar along the edge of the trap without ever getting near the trigger hairs in the center of the trap. Having trigger hairs along the edge like this could potentially lead to more successful captures.

Steve_D wrote:This unusual seedling is still a young plant. I personally think that there's a good chance that as the plant matures it may either lose the extra trigger hairs, or they will move downward and more toward the center of the trap, where often more than 3 trigger hairs may appear (sometimes 5 or 6). If the plant continues to produce extra trigger hairs near the trap margin and cilia as it matures, it will be a very interesting mutation.

I've fed this particular plant one meal worm and I've sprayed it with fertilizer. A new, larger trap is just starting to open today and I can see the extra trigger hairs along the rim in it as well. This trap is pretty large, so it's leading me to believe that this trait (trigger hairs near the edge of the trap) might be stable!

I'm going to try to re-establish the plant in TC. If I can do so, I'll be able to make some large plants in a matter of months and that will give us a better idea if the characteristic is stable.

NICE! Are you going to keep us updated if you ever get clones of it for sale?

yinepu wrote:NICE! Are you going to keep us updated if you ever get clones of it for sale?

Thanks! Yep, I'm planning on getting this one into tissue culture as soon as possible and I'll keep everyone updated about when it will be ready for sale.

Matt wrote:A new, larger trap is just starting to open today and I can see the extra trigger hairs along the rim in it as well. This trap is pretty large, so it's leading me to believe that this trait (trigger hairs near the edge of the trap) might be stable!

Wow. That's great. If the trait is stable, this would be a great plant to offer to enthusiasts and dedicated growers in the U.S. and worldwide after a development and propagation period. It sure is fun seeing the plants that result from interesting hand-pollination and cross-pollination. At least I think so; it's fascinating.

This would be a great name for it, i just look the definition of it, it means sawtooth hairs in latin: FTS"pilis acuttissima".

I'm impress of what nature can do, mutation adding extra hairs to the plant to catch insects faster, more accurate, and definitely without way to escape!

Hope this babies become available next year at the FTS!

Matt,

You and Steve have got some really cool VFT's going! Keep it up, and let's see some more pictures later in the year to see how they do.

I have my fingers so tightly crossed that I got something similar in the seeds I purchased from you that I don't think I'll be able to use them for several years .

Can't wait for more updates!

Grey wrote:I have my fingers so tightly crossed that I got something similar in the seeds I purchased from you

You'll probably get at least one or two plants that you consider special. Aside from a few specially pollinated seeds produced for use by our own breeding program, the seeds we ship from FlytrapStore.com are the same mix of hand-pollinated seeds that we germinate and grow ourselves, and from which this interesting seedling (the subject of this discussion thread), the FTS Crimson Sawtooth, the new FTS Pink Predator (or whatever name we decide to call it) and other Flytrap Store original plants have grown. So any of the seeds people buy from FlytrapStore.com can potentially produce exceptional or noteworthy plants, and were carefully hand pollinated to try to make interesting crosses between very nice clones.

We still have a good reserve stock of seeds from the 2010 harvest, and they should still have a good germination rate (about 70-75% or more), if anyone wishes to grow their own little batch of genetically-unique plant monsters.

http://www.flytrapcare.com/store/carniv ... -seed.html

Good luck, Grey! I hope you get some nice ones!

looks like rhubarb! nice

Thank you Steve! I do have more seeds in storage right now that I hope to get into my germination set up once my current ones are large enough to be potted.

I've never found a hobby that offers me as much relaxation and excitement during what is currently the most difficult time of my life as growing carnivorous plants from seed, and I certainly will be ordering seed again from you in the future!