Disa bracteata
20th March 2011
This might look like a couple of seedlings growing in a flask but it is actually two seedlings obscured by my flooding tears.
This is a very strange Disa species that has become a weed in parts of Australia which explains the common phrase
"One man's weed is another man's inconsolable sobbing".
I grew it under my standard Disa conditions, but in the wild (and even in Australia) it favours disturbed ground
and the sides of roads. It I get another chance to try, I might put it in a more conventional compost - it can't go any worse.
6th June 2017
I have clearly been trying to grow it far too wet. A new plant was moved to the Alpine House where the spike developed,
turned from green to brown and then died. I was a little upset until more research revealed that it has tiny flowers
nestled behind the bracts. It had developed and flowered normally, I just hadn't noticed the flowers.
I have sown the seed that was produced onto the pot surface and I am hoping I will see it again next year.
20th April 2017
I checked back through the pictures I had taken of its inconspicuous development and found this one
which had a detail of the plant in full flower.
I am sometimes a little dismissive of the big red triangular Disa and I'm going to stop.
I also discovered that I had been visited by aphids!