My 5-headed helmutii monster has gotten huge this year and will get a strict diet this winter. BUT this post isn't about that. ;) Look on the second pic - the plant develops side shoots! They look a bit weird but they are there and they're growing. How is this possible? Lithops never fail to surprise :)
That is extremely weird! One looks like it might be a seedling, yet the other is clearly attached to the parent plant. I've never seen this before, either. If anyone else has, I hope they let you know! Good sleuthing.
ReplyDeleteIt is! Crazy lithops :)
DeleteThe other one is attached, too. I've dug it up to check. So curious to see if they will actually grow to the normal size!
Hi Rika!
ReplyDeleteThat is a really gorgeous helmutii you have there!!!
Are you sure that theses little ones are really side shoots and not next year's heads? Because, as far as I know, side shoots are pretty much unheard of in Lithops. So that would be a very amazing discovery!
But I've seen something like this before in other Lithops that had grown very large. In that case the new heads took the shorter path to the light, which led them right through the side of the old head. It would have been harder for them to go the "right" way through the middle, so they grew a little askew and came out through the side.
Seeing as your Lithops have grown so unusually big this year, could that be it? The little ones' size would also fit the development stage of new heads as they would be growing inside the old heads right about now.
Hi Petra. :)
DeleteThis was my first thought, too. I've seen this. I've had this a couple of times with young seedlings for sure.
With these I'm pretty sure there are no holes in the big heads, no tearing. I've checked them and the "branches" seem to grow from between the rests of the old leaves. It's very unusual and I'm also pretty sceptical so the only thing left is to wait until they're bigger and see. I guess, if there's nothing inside the big heads, we'll know. :)
Okay, I'm really curious about this :D so I've removed a little more of the substrate to see way down to the root. And this is how it looks like: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-8AG3xM_dIVU/UHB93QTrWTI/AAAAAAAAB8I/qqJ3EZwBKT0/s501/C271%2520helmutii_008.jpg
DeleteToo bad it's so tiny and it's still difficult to see. Btw, while uncovering the root-body part I've discovered another tiny side shoot - it grows between rests of the old leaves and rests of even older leaves. Must be patient to see what's going on :)
That is really interesting. Please keep documenting and keep us updated!
DeleteOne other theory of mine would have been that your Lithops stems from a cross pollination between Lithops and another plant (like faucaria) that does grow side branches. But if I see this correctly, this is even a LIthops with a Cole number, so I guess my theory is not possible after all. ;)
I surely will :)
DeleteI bought it online 2,5 years ago and it had a note "new locality" so who knows about the purity of it, haha. Still I doubt a cross pullination with faucaria is possible.. From what I read cross pollination only stimulates self pollination without producing a hybrid. It's interesting in any case, can't wait to see it grow!
I think it's possibly a case of delayed development. Imagine a plant with two leaves, which often produces a new plant out of each leaf. If after the meristem has divided, one of the new plants fails to develop and remains rudimentary for whatever reason, you would get only one new plant emerging, instead of two. The second one may develop later and appear as the "side shoot", although it is actually just the second of the two modules which were formed by dichotomous branching of the meristem. I have no idea what might be the underlying cause for one of the new modules to go into such "suspended animation" and then to awaken at a later stage. Very interesting :)
ReplyDeleteHm I think it's quite plausible. Lithops developing -real- side shoots is a strange thought. But even the delayed development of one of the heads (one year delayed? two years?) isn't something you would consider possible. I always thought those underdeveloped heads just die off like underdeveloped flowers. To wait for so long as a little blob of nothing and then suddenly start to grow must be quite an effort for the plant. I'm really curious whether these "side heads" will make it to the normal size. I'll keep you posted :)
DeleteSince this plant never had a 6th head, if we consider the delayed development theory, my guess would be that after the annual change there should have developed two heads out of one but the second one waited untill now.
It's so interesting!!! I hope you can find out what is it and tell us =) Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteThat's really weird, sorry I don't know what your plant's problem is, Lol. No, seriously, that's really crazy cool stuff, I can't wait to see how it develops; it could be a Lithops wart? Sorry, I'm just being silly today. :)
ReplyDelete