Thread: Disa Cornuta
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Old 04-05-2008, 01:52 PM
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I'm interested in growing Disa cornuta from seed as well.

Does Disa cornuta grow in partial sun or full sun?

What kind of plants are growing in the fynbos where Disa cornuta grows other than the Satyrium? If you know the genus of some of the flowering plants there it would be of great help or even the scientific names of some of the grasses there.

How close are the neighboring plants to it? Are the grasses growing within millimeters of Disa cornuta, centimeters, inches, or feet?

What kind of soil does it grow in? Are you able to take a soil sample and check what it's contents are? Does it grow in sand (brown or tan)? Organic compost (if it's organic it will look black or coffee brown)? Clay maybe (red to reddish-brown, grayish, or maybe yellow)? Perhaps silt? Or a combination? Maybe something else? Could it have a little bit of beach sand mixed in? If there's beach sand are the particles shells and coral, or do they also have quartz and silica in it (glass like particles), or maybe particles of volcanic rocks (black sand beaches).

Are there rocks or pebbles in the soil? What kind of rocks or pebbles are they? Could it be limestone or any kind of calcium based rock (since it's near the coast)? Granite? Volcanic rocks? Maybe little sandstones?

Does it grow in grass/leaf litter and not much deeper than that surface? Or does it grow IN the soil itself?

Is the soil constantly moist throughtout the year? Is it seasonally dry? What is the season with the heaviest rainfall? Does it grow near moving water (like a river, or a stream)? Does it grow near standing water (like a puddle, a pond, or a lake)? Does it grow on the edge of a marsh, swamp, or wetland? Does it flood when it rains? Does it snow on the fynbos?

Can you find Disa cornuta along paved roadsides? How about unpaved?

How windy is it there at Port Elizabeth, South Africa?

How close to the beach is the fynbos Disa cornuta grows in?

Are there moss growing around where Disa cornuta grows? Lichens? Mushrooms? Fungus? Molds? Anything rotting? Do you find tiny white hairy fungus on the roots or tubers of this plant (mycorhizzal fungus)?

Does the fynbos experience fire (example: seasonal burning grasslands)?

How about the day time and night time averages for each season of the year, what are they?

Is Disa cornuta an evergreen plant? Does Disa cornuta go deciduous (leaves dry up and fall off)? If so, usually around when? Does it grow a flower spike when the leaves are gone or do they grow flowers when there are still leaves? Again, if so, around when? Or does it have no flowers AND no leaves during a certain part of the season? Yet again, if so, when?

Do you know the blooming season of Disa cornuta?

I don't mean to play what seems like a game of 20 questions, but I'm finding these factors to be crucial in successfully growing plants, especially terrestrial orchids. The more SPECIFIC info people know, the better people can inform someone who grows orchid seeds from flask to perhaps truly save Disa cornuta from being endangered or extinct.
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