NEW CULTIVARS

Dionaea 'Fused Tooth'
Dionaea 'Louchapattes' (Dionaea 'Noodle Ladle')

Dionaea 'Fused Tooth'

Submitted: 12 April 2004

This Dionaea cultivar has been described by Peter D'Amato (1998) on page 66 of his book, but no photographic standard was ever been supplied to complete the registration. I am supplying these photographs to complete the registration process. The photographs show how Dionaea 'Fused Tooth' may change greatly in appearance—during the winter it looks much like a normal Dionaea, but during summer growth its strange fused-tooth nature becomes apparent (see Figure 1, p101). I was the creator of both flytrap cultivars Dionaea 'Fused Tooth' (in 1990) and Dionaea 'Sawtooth' (in 1989).

References:

D'Amato, P. 1998. The Savage Garden, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California. 314 p.

—THOMAS CAROW • Muennerstadt • Germany

Figure 1: Dionaea 'Fused Tooth'. Photographs by Thomas Carow.

Dionaea 'Louchapates' (Dionaea 'Noodle Ladle')

Submitted: 13 August 2003

In 2000, I acquired a batch of Dionaea muscipula 'Fused Tooth', a cultivar that is distinguished  by having very wide marginal teeth, each of which is formed by the fusion of three or four marginal spines. This peculiarity is very variable and the details of how it is manifested depends upon a number of variables, especially the season and the specific clone; the fusion usually occurs only on the traps formed during the middle and the end of the season (although it sometimes occurs on traps formed at the start of the season).

Growing within this batch of plants was a small individual that differed from the others by a regular fusion of only a few spines into each of its teeth. The result was that each tooth was about 2 mm wide and was flattened in cross section, in contrast with the normal capillary nature of typical Dionaea plants. The tips of the teeth on this peculiar plant are often are multiply divided, revealing the fused nature of the teeth (see Figure 2). The teeth are oriented normally, unlike the distorted positioning as is often observed with Dionaea 'Fused Tooth'. Because of the many flattened teeth of the cultivar, I am giving this plant the name Dionaea muscipula 'Louchapates'; the cultivar epithet can be translated to English as 'Noodle Ladle'. This name is fitting since it describes the culinary tool of the same shape that is used for serving spaghetti noodles. (Those who cannot speak French accurately can approximate the pronunciation of the cultivar epithet as "LOOSH-ah-PATT".)

Another peculiarity with Dionaea 'Louchapates' is exhibited near the apex of the trap, opposite the petiole. In normal specimens of Dionaea, this region of the leaf lobe margins lacks spines. But in Dionaea 'Louchapates', marginal teeth are present on both lobes, all the way to the midpoint of the two lobe margins (see Figure 1, top right inset). This feature is also seen in Dionaea 'Cupped Trap', although that cultivar has traps that are cupped like a spoon.

After three years of cultivation, Dionaea 'Louchapates' has undergone normal dormancies and has been propagated vegetatively. The progeny are showing the same features as the parent plant.

This cultivar is not a member of the Dionaea Dentate Traps Group since its teeth originate from a fusion of multiple marginal spines, and are not short and triangular.

—ROMUALD ANFRAIX • Lyon • France

Figure 2: Dionaea 'Louchapates', also known as Dionaea 'Noodle Ladle'. Photographs by Romuald Anfraix.