Dear friends,


I'm living since nearly 10 years now in French Guyana, a little country situated on the Atlantic coast, next to the border of Brazil, in the Amazonas area.
Here we can find many Utricularia - 25 species have been discovered until today - , two Drosera, Catopsis berteroniana, and some Genlisea.


It was always tought that our country is home of Genlisea pygmaea.

I never found this plant during all the years down here. Wich not mean that the plant doesn't exist here.

I found a plant named Genlisea filiformis 2012. The "discovery" of this plant by myself confirmed it's presence in this country : it's presence here was suspected until the plant was found : strangely, the plant was listed as being present in Fr.Guyana in official botanical listings, but without any proven localisation data, nore samples.


Here is my homepage with some pictures of Genlisea filiformis :

http://guyane-l.over-blog.com/page-6013605.html


This year I received a mail, from a person who found another species of Genlisea. This person is not a specialist of carnivorous plants, but is interested in these plants, and in plants in general.

Well....after a message on the german forum asking for ID confirmation, it was confirmed that we have a new species in our country, wich name is Genlisea oxycentron.


Here here are the first pictures from this new plant, on the discoverer's homepage :

http://www.lachaussetterouge.fr/2015/04/genlisea-pygmaea.html#ob-comment-ob-comment-72443012

(please notice : the link still includes the name "Genlisea pygmaea")


Well....I'm still looking for Genlisea pygmaea, and hope I'll find it one day.


A botanist who's working for the local herbarium (CAY) told me that there are 2 species of Genlisea in Fr.Guyana.

That was before G.oxycentron was definitively identified.

It's pretty interesting to notice that Genlisea pygmaea's presence is impregnated so deep in the minds,

or are there 3 species of Genlisea in this country ?


Well, do you know what ?

There is a third species of Genlisea wich presence is suspected here, it's Genlisea pulchella !

Lets try to find it, and then my friends, I promiss, I'll find Genlisea pygmaea.

Hello Patrice, how long huh? Well, despite being absent for so long as usual you bring us interesting news about the carnivorous flora of French Guiana.

Indeed the discovery that there exists G. oxycentron is something to celebrate, but I was also curious about the possible existence of G. pygmaea out there and the fact that these 10 years you never have found, though tour the areas where supposedly this CP should exist.

The question is: will it was not extinct? Not that I want to be pessimistic, but you will agree with me that this possibility exists and you have to be prepared to deal with it.

Hoping to be wrong in my last thought, it is up to me just thank you for sharing this information.

Best regards,

Rodrigo F. Costa

Tradução livre:

Olá Patrice, a quanto tempo hein? Bom, apesar de estar ausente a tanto tempo como de costume você nos trouxe noticias interessantes acerca da flora carnívora da Guiana Francesa.

Realmente a descoberta de que por aí existe G. oxycentron é algo a se comemorar, porém também fiquei curioso acerca da possível existência de G. pygmaea por aí e pelo fato de nestes 10 anos você nunca a ter encontrado, apesar de visitar as áreas aonde supostamente essa CP deveria existir.

A questão é; será que ela não foi extinta? Não que eu queira ser pessimista, mas você há de convir comigo que essa possibilidade existe e tu tem que estar preparado para lidar com isso.

Na esperança de estar errado em meu ultimo raciocínio, a mim só cabe agradecê-lo por compartilhar conosco estas informações.

Abs,

Rodrigo F. Costa

Congratulations Patrice!

It's most likely that G.pygmaea never grew in French Guyana or many of the other places it was claimed to be found (I don't have Andreas' monograph here with me to check). For a lomg time a bunch of small species were simply lumped under G.pygmaea, thus the confusion.

Best wishes,
Fernando

Hello Friends,

Thank you for your answers and suppport.

Well, Rdrgobra, I was away a long time, that's true....2014 was a very bad year for me, and I'm going out in nature again since a few weeks only. I had to much trouble in my private life to have time to deal with plants and so on...let's forget it ;-)

Concerning Genlisea pygmaea, you might be right, it may be extinct here....but as I pointed it out on my homepage, the distribution area of this plant is very small, and covers a few little biotopes in Brasil, and in Venezuela, as it can be seen in the Genlisea monograph...French Guyana is not in it's distribution area, apparently.

Fernando (Hi Fernando ! ) told us that many small species of Genlisea were identified as G.pygmaea, just because they are to small to be examinated correctly.
He is right : I spoke with a botanist who is working for the CAY herbarium, and as I mentionned before, he told me that are two species of Genlisea in Fr.Guyana.
He also told me that for him, the plants on the picture (G.oxycentron) IS Genlisea pygmaea...

But now we know the "truth", and I'm still trying to find this plant, but I think I'll never find it.
The only trouble in this story is the fact that Genlisea pygmaea is strictly protected in our country....

But there are also some other dicoveries I have to tell you about ; I'll put some messages in the Utricularia section ;-)