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Desmanthus leptolobus

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This is a nice one for those of us exposed to somewhat hard freezes.

Overview:

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Foliage:

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Seed Pods:

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D. leptolobus does well in hotter climates as well. It is particularly interesting for those of us with short growing seasons. It flowers and sets seed profusely.

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awsome photos, thx 4 sharing, specialy because i think desmanthus haven't got discussed to a big degree

yet. maybe it's frosthardieness could be the answere to growers in europe.

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What kind of freezes are we talking about, here? Like 0, -10, or -20C?

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possums love them!!!

getting legumes going properly,rhizobium,is prob main problem.

i use soil from another legume to inoculate,seems to help much!

t s t .

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Hes zone 6b so thatd be -15°C or lower, I know D. illinoensis is hardy down to -30°C

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Nice plants, btw! :)

Welcome aboard ion! and thanks. Given what you've told me about your zone, I think they will be hardy. I think their natural range extend into the american great plains, where winter temps drop into zone 5 territory.

And a pic from what I think is a two year old plant, maybe 3 yrs old. I forget. :bong:

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Bumping this...

First, beautiful pics!

Second -- I just germinated seed that I got from JLHudson ten years ago.

They'd been sitting in a jar at room temp, and I thought, what the hell, so...

Nicked with nail file, soaked overnight, planted in potting soil in a plastic bag for humidity.

They came up in two days, almost all of them! Some of them were up overnight!

Long lived seed, indeed! Can't wait to see how they grow up...

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excellent bumping action!

obviously the bulk of oztraliens don't have a need for those plants, but golly most of the rest of the world does!

i'm very interressted as i am currently living in a cold climat country! :)

i wonder if the product we get of those plants would be compareable with what a boytritis effected ice wine stands for in comparisment to a hot climat wine, haha.

obviosly a very far streched comparisment, but dmt plants all have there own characters and those surly would have to display unique features.

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PH, no kidding...not to mention that they grow like weeds in the midwest US (see trout's excellent page on this, I got it through the SAB search engine or trout dot yage dot net.)

What blows me away is the quick germination after ten years of pretty lousy storage. Ever heard of anything like this? I mean, overnight? (I'm sure if anyone has it's you ph). :)

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What blows me away is the quick germination after ten years of pretty lousy storage. Ever heard of anything like this? I mean, overnight?

i can remeber having the same wau effect when i planted some m. hostillis seeds, which were given to me saying they were quite old, and than i waited another 2 years before planting them...

after nicking a corner of the seed off, they got planted out, and emerged just 3 day's or so later.

you know how it's always a very special and rewarding thing to see a new seedling breaking the soil surface?

well, with those hostillis seeds this feeling was almost estatic! :P

the fastes germinating i ever experienced was with anadenanthera colubrina, i could watch the root forming within hours of laying them down.

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I think one of the things that makes them so well suited to cold climates is that they have a very thick rootbark. Almost like it provides insulation during dormancy. Also, it is so slow to break dormancy in cold climates that the foliage isn't exposed to nasty low temps.

Love the plant.

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A search of the web shows a scarcity of seed sources. No idea why. There's a good source in NM that's out of stock. I'd rather not order from B&T in France if possible. Anyone with any leads on leptolobus seeds please PM me.

Maybe I should hop in the car and drive out to Kansas...

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I wonder if trimming the roots while transplanting those old plants will be a viable option ..

The possibility to whack the whole plant seems wasteful ..

:rolleyes:

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These critters make lots of seeds. Easier than fussing with trimming roots to slowly build a pile would be to just toss seeds in a different spot for each of 4 years, soon you'd have lots of 4 year old plants to kill every year.

I've tried the root trimming thing with other plants that take 3-5 years to mature and establishing a rotation and killing plants is just so much better, trimming roots was just wasteful of effort.

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bucket full -
balcony
.. seed tossin

critter !




.

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Edited by mysubtleascention

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Awesome thread, keep it up.

Beautiful plants - I did not have much luck with getting Desmanthus ill. to mature 4 years ago, but I suppose I could do better nowadays

What would be the best bet regarding Acacia cold hardiness?

Edited by mutant

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