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VIVIPAROUS WATER LILIES

 VIVIPAROUS WATER LILIES

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

18/VIII/2024

 

There was a time that we thought hard about how to keep blooms in our garden throughout the year. Here, summers are harsh and winters are terribly cold. This takes a toll on all varieties of plants, irrespective of the care and precautions you take. So, from Hibiscus, we started adding water lilies to our collection.

 

How to grow them and maintain them came with lots of heart breaks and losses. But, if one is determined to be at it, nothing can stop you. In the bargain, I made friends with so many people spread far and wide in India, who not only helped in guiding us but also sent saplings. A few of them even replaced the ones which did not arrive in good shape by courier. God bless them.

 

Be that as it may. In the course of my study on water lilies, I came across a new method of propagation besides bulbs and tubers. It was new, unique, and very unusual for me. Above all, it was natural and free of cost. It cannot be done with all varieties, but the ones which can be propagated like that will indicate to you about it.

 

If one takes a close look at a water lily leaf. They are very roundish, smooth, and shiny. Some of them have dark coloured spots, a kind of ‘variegated’ type if they could be called so. The olive-green ones belong to light coloured ones like white, cream, and yellow. The spotted ones and red coloured leaves give dark coloured blooms. This was an observation over the last two years.

 

Some leaves have a node in the centre. A kind of protrusion like a pimple. The same place from where the leaf is attached to its branch through a stem. The centre will show a ‘bump’. These kinds of leaves are called “viviparous”.

 

In botany it means, a plant reproducing from buds, which form ‘plantlets’, while still attached to the parent plant or from seeds which germinate within the fruit. The former is true for water lilies. This phenomenon is called ‘viviparity’. Such lilies have a capacity to produce new plants that emerge while still being attached to the parent plant.

 

In our collection, we have two of these kinds. We were not aware of them till one day during the rainy season one found fresh roots and a set of leaves emerging from the centre of the leaf.

 

Generally, to keep the tubs clean one removes all yellowing and dead leaves. This happened by chance. We were on a short holiday and left these plants ‘ram bharose’. That is the time as the leaf started to die and dissolve while floating on water, it produced a small plant from that pimple.

 

We were overwhelmed at this new life and wanted to save it to share it with friends. The rotting leaves were floated in an empty tub. In about a month's time the centre node transformed into a small tuber/bulb. Small lily leaves started to grow from it. This was a clear sign that we had a baby plant ready to be transplanted.

 

Sometimes being adventurous helps. At times leaving the plants alone also produces surprising results. A note which I had read about viviparous lilies now came true right infront of our eyes. What more is in store to learn? I wonder!!!!!

 

🇮🇳 JAI HIND 🇮🇳
© ® NOEL ELLIS







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