Pinguicula fiorii

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TAXONOMY:

Family : Lentibulariaceae

Genus : Pinguicula

Name : Pinguicula fiorii

Sub-classification (Casper) : link

Publication : Botanico Italiano Vol. 19, 1987. Fernando Tammaro and Loretta Pace, Informatore.

"Il genere Pinguicula L. (Lentibulariaceae) in Italia Centrale ed instituzione di una nuova specie P. fiorii. Tamm et Pace"

DESCRIPTION : (in publication)

Perennial plant with a winter hibernacula, short rhizome and filiform roots. Leaves 7 - 8 in a basal rosette, an entire margin, very revolute, to cover 1/5 of the entire leaf lamina, hairless below, glandular and sticky above, bright green colour. Broadly ovate, length (20) 24 - 27 (32) mm, width (9) 9.5 - 12 (16) mm. Flower scape 1 - 2, glabrous or glandular at the base, densely glandular at the apex, 50 - 75 mm tall, single flowered. Flower bilobes, 15 - 20mm long, azure-violet, calyx bilobed, glandular; superior calyx lobe trilobed, largely oval, with rounded apex; short, nearly as long as wide; inferior lobe bilobed, the division ending 1/3 from the base.

Corolla length 15 - 20 mm, bilobed, the throat hirsute with white multicellular hairs, which are smaller around the base of superior than on the inferior lobe; inferior lobe trilobed, rounded-oblong, overlapping at the edges. Spur straight, blunt, diameter 4.5 - 5.5 (7.5) mm, about 1/3 of the corolla. Capsule ovoid, subequal to the calyx. 

 

Chromosome number : 2n = 32 

ORIGIN AND HISTORY :

The species was discovered in Italy, in the Majella mountains and described in 1987. There was a controversy on the fact that these plants were a new species or not. In Casper (1962), these plants were identified as Pinguicula balcanica. Jurg Steiger think that in spite of the relatively poor description and illustration of this discovery it is certainly a distinct species.    

Localisation / Map: 

Pinguicula fiorii have been found in four locations up to now (2002), all in Majella, in Italy. Jan Flisek thinks that there are more sites hidden in the mountains but the terrain is very difficult and the plants are difficult to find.

- Eastern slopes of the Majella, in the locality of Cannelluccia di Bocca di Valle in a gorge on mossy calcareous rocks with dripping water, 750m.

- West slopes of Majella, Valle dell'Orfento, Grotta di San Giovanni, 1300m.

- the third site known is directly Orfento Valley 750-800 m above sea level. (Jan Flisek, pers. comm., nov. 2002)

- The last site known is mentionned by Jurg Steiger in "Pinguicula (Lentibulariaceae) : The cool climate species of the northern hemisphere - Morphology, Biology, Cultivation" a text from the second conference of the International Carnivorous Plants Society, Bonn (Germany), May 30 - June 1st, 1998. The location is not cited but this is in the alpine zone. An altitude of 2460m is cited. Jan Flisek visited this site, it is an alpine site. The plants on the alpine site are more smaller than the others. They are 3-6 cm in diameter.

HABITAT:  

 

Pinguicula fiorii grows in gorges, in mossy carpets on rocks with dripping water surrounded by Fagetum (beech). Altitudes are from 750m to 2470m (Steiger - Bonn,1998). Others plants that grow with Pinguicula fiorii : Marchantia, Equisetum palustris, Parnasia palustris, Scrophularia nodosa, Angelica sylvestris.   

 

The alpine site is quite different. The plants grow on the rock spur. There is no running water, but the water condensates there at night. The plants are under direct sun light for few hours per day. There is no high vegetation (trees, bushes etc), only small alpine plants (for example endemic Soldanella minima subsp. samnitica).(Jan Flisek, pers. comm., nov. 2002)

Introduction in culture :

I don't know who was the first collector of  Pinguicula fiorii for culture. 

I was given my first Pinguicula fiorii in summer 1999 (an hibernacula) by Laurent Legendre. Unfortunately, this plant rot in winter 99.

I bought then seeds in A. Lowrie catalogue in 2000 and get one small plantlet. This plantlet too rot  in winter 2000.  

In 2001, Peter Harbarth gave me a big healthy hibernacula that I still grow in september 2002. 

 

CULTURE AND MULTIPLICATION : 

(North hemisphere, France near Paris, in a garden  - see the map -)

Life cycle : In spring, the cycle begins by the opening of the winter buds and the production of the first carnivorous leaves. The first leaves are followed by the flowers in summer. New carnivorous leaves are produced during all the season. Near autumn, or earlier, if your conditions are not optimal, the next hibernacula is revealed in the centre of the rosette. Then leaf production stops and the old leaves decay slowly. The plant (reduced now to a small hibernacula) is ready for winter and for the next cycle. 

Media: I use a 100 % mineral media : 2 perlite, 2 vermiculite, 1 small sand (for aquarium), 1 fine white sand, 1 pouzzolane (volcanic lava), 2 marly calcareous detritus. 

Pot : big plastic box.

Cultivation : The long term cultivation of temperate Pinguicula is difficult : If the summer growing conditions are not optimal, the plants will form very weak hibernacula which easily rot. 

Optimal summer growing conditions are : good air humidity, cool temperature and UV lights.

I grow my plants in my garden all the year with a good amount of direct sun.  

 

 

Multiplication : By seeds or using the gemmae produced around winter hibernacula.

 PICTURES: (click to enlarge)

Pinguicula fiorii from Valle dell'Orfento, Grotta di San Giovanni, 1300m

Pinguicula fiorii in Valle dell'Orfento, 800 m

Pinguicula fiorii, alpine site, in Valle dell'Orfento, 2460 / 2470 m