Renovations of the Woodstock Community Centre are planned now to start in September.
Meetings for September, October and November will be held in the Ralston Room at the Burwood Park Community Centre, 2A Conder Street, Burwood (in the NW corner of Burwood Park).
Details of this venue are available at http://www.burwood.nsw.gov.au/services/venue_hire.html with some additional details available at http://www.venuebat.com.au/venues/burwood-park-community-centre.
Executive
President & Public Officer – Wesley Fairhall
Vice President – Robert Gibson
Treasurer, Secretary & Publicity Officer – Kirk ‘Füzzy’ Hirsch
Committee Member 1 – Marina Chong
Committee Member 2 – David Colbourn
Committee Member 3 – Glen Moss
Committee Member 4 – Terry Watts
Woodstock Community Centre renovation status
Renovations for Woodstock have been delayed again and are now scheduled to start in September. Thus the August meeting will be at Woodstock Community Centre in the Group Room 1 as usual.
Seed Bank Catalogue
The Seed Bank catalogue can now be found in its own tab on the main page.
Ed Yong writes in National Geographic about a Nepenthes (Nepenthes hemsleyana) that provides a species of bat (Hardwicke’s woolly bat, Kerivoula hardwickii) with shelter in return for food:
With Sonar-Reflecting Leaves, Plant Lures Bats to Poo in it
Imagine a bat flying through the jungle of Borneo. It calls out to find a place to spend the night. And a plant calls back.
The plant in question is Nepenthes hemsleyana—a flesh-eating plant that’s terrible at eating flesh. It’s a pitcher plant and like all its kin, its leaves are shaped like upright vases. They’re meant to be traps. Insects should investigate them, tumble off the slippery rim, and drown in the pool of liquid within the pitcher. The pitcher then releases digestive enzymes to break down the corpses and absorb their nitrogen—a resource that’s in short supply in the swampy soils where these plants grow.
But N.hemsleyana has very big pitchers that are oddly short of fluid and that don’t release any obvious insect attractants. And when Ulmar Grafe from the University of Brunei Darussalam looked inside them, he saw seven times fewer insects than in other pitchers.
Instead, he found small bats.
Full download: Carniflora News, July 2015 (PDF)
HIGHLIGHTS
Renovations for Woodstock have been delayed until August. The June meeting will be held at Woodstock Community Centre in the Group Room 1 as usual.
Summary of the June meeting
The June meeting developed organically after technical difficulties led to the postponement of the photo competition for a later meeting. The
general meeting included a discussion on how to print the currently missing issues of Carniflora Australis in the most cost-effective way.
The meeting ended with an impromptu talk by Greg Lvoff on his recent field trip to the SE of the USA to see Sarracenia in the wild. Thank you
Greg.
Nepenthes lowii x jacquelineae
The ‘Plant of the Month’ competition was a contest between a 3 year old seed-grown Heliamphora tatei plant, a pot of Drosera pauciflora with some plants in scape; D. marchantii subsp. prophylla in scape; Nepenthes lowii x jacquelineae, N. rowanae and N. maxima ‘dark’ x spectabilis. After a robust discussion the winner was N. rowanae grown by Raymond Chin.
Full download: Carniflora News, June 2015 (PDF)
HIGHLIGHTS
Renovations for Woodstock have been delayed until July. Thus the June meeting will be at Woodstock Community Centre in the Group Room 1 as usual.
Full download: Carniflora News, May 2015 (PDF)
HIGHLIGHTS
Summary of April Meeting
The April meeting was a social event that did not have any formal presentation. Instead it was an excellent opportunity to catch up with other enthusiasts to discuss plants and related matters. There were some interesting plants brought in for display and also for sale.
The general meeting of 12th June will include a photo exhibition. Please start putting aside copies of your best photos now for this event. Another desired outcome from this will be the selection of photos for the proposed calendar for 2016 that the Society plans to put together. So get out there and keep taking photos of these wonderful plants.
N. maxima x bicalcarata
The ‘Plant of the Month’ competition was a contest between a range of beautiful plants including Byblis liniflora, Drosera hookeri, D. intermedia, Nepenthes maxima x bicalcarata, N. thorelii x maxima, Pinguicula gypsicola, Sarracenia psittacina ‘Large Red’, Utricularia praelonga and U. uliginosa. The leading plants in the competition were N. maxima x bicalcarata and S. psittacina, with the Nepenthes taking top honours.
Well done David Colbourn for growing such a fascinating plant so well (see details on Page 3).
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Full download: Carniflora News, April 2015 (PDF)
HIGHLIGHTS
Utricularia juncea flowering under lights
Renovations at Woodstock — May – June 2015
Renovations of the Woodstock Community Centre are planned now to start in May, thus the April meeting will be held at Woodstock. Check the ACPS Facebook page for updates.
Summary of the March Meeting
The March meeting was an interesting event with many excellent plants on show and for sale. More progress has been made in reactivating the Society’s PayPal account. Thanks Terry and Wesley for following this up.
Laurie Dorfer gave a comprehensive talk on carnivorous bromeliads and had flowering plants of Brocchinia reducta and Catopsis berteroniana for show. This group of carnivorous plants is neither well known nor widely grown in Australia.
Full download: Carniflora News, March 2015 (PDF)
Excellent time-lapse movie of carnivorous plants growing, moving and eating. Featuring hapless insectoid prey, atmospheric music, birdsong and squishy/slurpy/creaky sound effects.
Created by Chris Field/Biolapse.
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