Propagation
Propagating Genlisea
Corkscrew plants are multiplied by leaf cuttings: a whole surface leaf with its pale base laid on very wet peat or sphagnum grows into a new plant.
Genlisea are small, rootless relatives of the bladderworts whose underground leaves are the traps, and the usual method is the leaf cutting, which is the one growers use most. Take a whole green surface leaf with its white base, lay it on flooded peat or sphagnum, keep it warm, and wait. Clumps of established plants can also be pulled apart, and the few species that refuse to strike from surface leaves will often grow from a piece of trap. Seed is rarely needed and is slow.
Leaf cuttings
Easy
When: Any time the plant is in active growth; these are tropical plants without a dormancy.
Pull a complete green surface leaf, including the white portion at its base, and lay it on saturated peat or long-fibre sphagnum under the same warm, bright, humid conditions as the parent. Each leaf can produce a plantlet.
- Lift a mature leaf from the edge of the rosette with fine forceps, tugging gently so it comes away with the whole pale base intact; the new plant forms from that base.
- Lay the leaf on very wet peat, peat and sand, or long-fibre sphagnum, and tuck a little moss over the white base so it cannot dry out.
- Keep the container flooded to the surface, warm (not below about 16 C) and in strong light short of harsh sun, with a cover if the air is dry.
- Pot on when the plantlet has several leaves of its own. Species that will not strike from leaves, such as some clones of G. violacea, can sometimes be struck from pieces of the underground trap leaves instead, and the flower stalk can also be laid on sphagnum.
- Medium
- Sphagnum peat, peat and sand, or long-fibre sphagnum, kept saturated or flooded; an undrained container suits them.
- Conditions
- Warm (minimum about 16 C), humid, strong light up to part sun.
- Time to result
- Plantlets within a few weeks; a leaf that simply vanishes has failed.
Watch out for
- A leaf pulled without its white base will not sprout.
- Cuttings that dry out die; keep the medium wet throughout.
Sources for this method
- Peter D'Amato, The Savage Garden, Revised Edition (Ten Speed Press, 2013), The Other Savage Plants chapter, Genlisea section. ISBN 978-1-60774-410-8
- Brittnacher, J. 2022. Grow Genlisea so you can see the traps. Carnivorous Plant Newsletter 51(3): 143-146 (accessed )
- Carnivorous Plant Cultivation Guide: Genlisea (New England Carnivorous Plant Society) (accessed )
Sources
References for the facts on this page.
- Peter D'Amato, The Savage Garden, Revised Edition (Ten Speed Press, 2013), The Other Savage Plants chapter. ISBN 978-1-60774-410-8