Cobaea Scandens (Cup n Saucer Vine)
soofalls
19 years ago
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19 years agoJudithw
19 years agoRelated Discussions
Cup-and-saucer/ Cobaea: white cultivars as vigorous?
Comments (3)I don't remember if they were as vigorous, but I do remember that I thought they were insipid. The flowers were lost in the foliage. I won't plant them again. Denise...See MoreStarting Cobea scandens (cup & saucer vine)
Comments (3)From my own experience I can say that the freshness of the seed has something to do with it. I have never had old (that is over one year) seed sprout--except for one batch that was on its second year, but it was hermetically sealed. Fresh is best with this plant. Also, I use the paper towel method. I wrap in damp paper towel, put in a plastic bag and put it someplace warm. I open it up for air each day or so. Then after some days, a gross, stringy, gooey, guk is on th outside of the seeds. I pull that off, wipe the seeds well, give them a fresh paper towel, and put them back in the bag. As soon as I see a sprout (sometimes as soon as a week), I plant it root tip down, and allow part (not quite half because it is already sprouted) of the seed coat to stick out of the soil straight up and down. The seed comes right up. Once up, sometimes the little cotyledons have difficulty getting out. Be careful not to mess with them too much because you can damage or kill them. However, I have been known to assist a seed or two. The tip of the seed that was sticking out is quite dry, and hard for the seed to push off. If you dab it with moisture regularly (with a Q-Tip) it may be fine. if not, you may have to split the seed off: use caution! Wait to see if the plant can do it for itself first. Right now, I have 9 plants going; several have their second set of true leaves! I hope this was helpful. Again, this is only from my own experience & mistakes. Good Luck, Robin...See MoreNeed Help with Cobaea (cup 'n' saucer vine)
Comments (1)Yes, the seed is behind the cup, and they really are late bloomers. They also come in white....See Morehas ANYONE saved seeds from Cobaea (cup 'n' saucer vine)?
Comments (8)I never have. I had the same experience as you; no matter how early I started plants I didn't get flowers until late summer. So I thought it needed warm temperatures. But then the darn thing kept blooming until November in central Ohio! I've heard that cobaea is naturally pollinated by bats, but that the bats we have in North America simply don't do that. Found a few articles that reference that, this from a UCLA publication: Bat pollination is especially important in certain families, such as Old and New World Bombacaceae, including the baobab, kapok, and floss-silk tree species. Classical examples of bat flowers occur in the Bignoniaceae, including the sausage trees cultivated on the UCLA campus, and calabash, among others. Cobaea scandens, a cultivated vine of the phlox family (Polemoniaceae), has flagelliflory and is bat pollinated in western South America. Although in Westwood we have some bat-adapted flowers, and these plants form fruits, we have not determined yet whether bats are responsible for fruit formation on campus. This sounds like a good nighttime homework assignment for a UCLA undergraduate student, one not afraid of bats and vampires. And from the Kemper Center for Home Gardening: Native to Mexico and tropical South America, cup and saucer vine is a vigorous, rapid-growing, tendril-climbing vine that typically grows to 30-40 in its native habitat. When grown as an annual, it can grow 10-20Â in a single season. The descriptive common name is in reference to its bell-shaped flowers (cups), each of which is subtended by a saucer-like green calyx. Flowers last about 4 days, emerging green but maturing to purple. Flowers have a musky fragrance. Blooms late summer into fall. Pinnate leaves have four leaflets. Also commonly called cathedral bells. Flowers are reportedly pollinated by bats. And this from the Encyclopedia Britannica: Certain highly specialized tropical bats, particularly Macroglossus and Glossophaga, also obtain most or all of their food from flowers. The Macroglossus (big-tongued) species of southern Asia and the Pacific are small bats with sharp snouts and long, extensible tongues, which carry special projections (papillae) and sometimes a brushlike tip for picking up a sticky mixture of nectar and pollen. The plants involved have, in the process of evolution, responded to the bats by producing large (sometimes huge) amounts of these foods. One balsa-tree flower, for example, may contain a full 10 grams (0.3 ounce) of nectar, and one flower from a baobab tree has about 2,000 pollen-producing stamens. Some bat flowers also provide succulent petals or special food bodies to their visitors. Characteristics of the flowers themselves include drab colour, large size, sturdiness, bell-shape with wide mouth and, frequently, a powerful rancid or urinelike smell. The giant saguaro cactus and the century plant (Agave) are pollinated by bats, although not exclusively, and cup-and-saucer vine (Cobaea scandens) is the direct descendant of a bat-pollinated American plant. Calabash, candle tree, and areca palm also have bat-pollinated flowers. Somehow I don't think we can replicate this with a soda straw and long fingernails!...See Morechris_in_wv (z6/7)
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