Hermetospheres

Experiences with plant life in closed glass containers

Category: Successes

  • Around the world on behalf of the tsar

    Around the world on behalf of the tsar

    On 7 August 1803 the sailing ship Nadeshda under captain Adam Johann von Krusenstern left St. Petersburg for the first Russia-led circumnavigation of the globe on behalf of Tsar Alexander I. During a first stop in Copenhagen, German naturalist Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff (1774-1852), later diplomat in the service of the tsar, came aboard. After crossing…

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  • Darwin and the mystery of the coiling direction

    Darwin and the mystery of the coiling direction

    When I acquired this plant as one of my first purchases to grow in a hermetosphere, it was labelled Marcgravia umbellata, but it might as well be Macgravia oligandra. Both plants originate from the caribbean islands and belong to the shingle-leaf climbers – root-climbing plants whose leaves are adpressed and often overlap (Zona 2020). As…

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  • Plant on the move

    Plant on the move

    The “little tree plant” (Biophytum sensitivum) is very popular among terrarium hobbyists. Its natural habitat are wet lands of tropical India and South-East Asia, where it grows in the shades of trees and shrubs, in grass lands at low and medium altitudes (Sakthivel and Guruvayoorappan 2012). It looks like a miniature palm tree, is perennial,…

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  • Pyrrosia nummulariifolia

    Pyrrosia nummulariifolia

    You might wonder why this post is categorized as both success and failure. Let me begin with the success. When I started my jar designated to Myanmar in mid-August 2021, I placed a short rhizome cutting of P. nummulariifolia along the border of the substrate. Now, almost a year later, it is well established and…

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  • Neoregelia

    Neoregelia

    Bromeliads, the Bromeliaceae family, are among the most fascinating plants of the neotropical fauna. Most of them grow too large for a 5l hermetosphere. A few however do not only fit in size but also seem to find favorable conditions for living in hermetospheres. Initially, the Bromeliaceae family was divided into three subfamilies based on…

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  • Barbosella cogniauxiana

    Barbosella cogniauxiana

    I currently run two jars representing Brazil Southeast, both etablished in May 2021. They both contain Barbosella cogniauxiana in different combinations. Under my standard conditions, the plant does very well so far. At the end of March 2022 it showed its extraordinary blooms for the first time. The specimen that served for the first scientific description…

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