by Derek Butcher 2001
This all started with the usual batch of photographs I get from Geoff Lawn in Perth where I try to help him out with his inherited misnamings!!! Two were of that Nidularium innocentii looking plant with white petals and with long stolons that has been in Australia for many years. Geoff had a question mark against Nidularium purpureum which is a name we also saw on this plant in years past! BUT Nidularium purpureum has red petals!
The plant had apparently been in Western Australia for 20 years having been "imported" from the Eastern states. I obtained my plant from Ruby Ryde in Sydney some 10 years ago and ever since Elton Leme's book on Nidularium arrived I have been puzzling over this plant. Coming from Ruby Ryde with her penchant for species makes me think it is a species rather than a hybrid. A batch of these Nidularium books arrived on Aussie shores in late 2000 but if any keen growers want their own copy their best bet is to contact Karl Green in Florida direct at his Email address kkg@mindspring.com Because of the low exchange rate of the Aussie dollar this book will cost over A$200.00 but is well worth it. Those who do have this book are asked to check my findings!
First, I started off with the key which is easy to follow and surprisingly I finished up at Nidularium rubens. I say "surprisingly" because I thought I should have come out at Nidularium albiflorum which had been treated by Lyman Smith as a variety of Nidularium purpureum. This is what Elton Leme had to say about this species:-
"Nidularium rubens was described in 1891 by Karl Mez from a specimen collected by A. Glaziou at Serra do Picu and deposited in the Berlin-Dahlem Botanical Museum herbarium, in Germany. The holotype is composed of an entire plant, without petals, so there is no data in the protologue on these structures. The species is characterised by its slender nature, stoloniferous mode of propagation, leaves few and strongly canaliculate toward the base with undulate margins, inflorescence clearly raised above the leaf rosette, primary bracts with an acuminate-caudate apex, often revolute toward the apex, and petal lobes white.
This species belongs to the "white complex" and is morphologically close to N. albiflorum; it even shares the same habitat, at least in the Sera de Paranapiacaba region. Nidularium rubens differs from N. albiflorum in its stoloniferous habit, longer leaves, much more developed floral scape that raises the inflorescence above the leaf rosette, primary bracts acuminate-caudate and often revolute, and wider sepals more highly connate at the base."
I worried about the length of the scape but the description says 10 - 20cm long and ours is at the bottom end of the scale. I worried about the predominantly green primary bracts but the description says greenish to red. I worried about the leaves but the description says blades sublinear-lanceolate, purplish-wine underneath. So, MY worries are over. How about yours?
So, instead of Nidularium 'Long stoloniferous from RR.' I'm putting Nidularium rubens on the label.
DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT
The type-specimen locality is the only one that lies outside the region where populations of N. rubens are concentrated. In fact, most records point to the taxon as typical of the montane sector of Ssao Paulo, especially the Paranapiacaba region, with a lone specimen from Bertioga on the coast.
Nidularium rubens is a terrestrial species, growing in the litter layer of the Atlantic forest in Sao Paulo, especially in areas of high altitude cloud forest. From near sea level to over 1,000 m altitude, it grows in sparse populations and is sympatric with N. albiflorum and N. minutum, also from the "subcomplex innocentii" of the “white complex”.
The species is protected in the Alto da Serra de Paranapiacaba Biological Reserve and the Caminhos do Mar Park (which belongs to the Sao Paulo electric company). It is represented by at least two clones in cultivation. —SeeLeme 2000a
