Edible Mushroom Preservation Methods and Analysis of the Causes of Wrinkled Clivia Leaves

Sometimes growers encounter the situation of wrinkled Clivia leaves and assume it may be caused by improper care. In fact, this phenomenon is mostly related to the variety, often appearing in varieties such as Quelan and Henglan, mostly on young plants, and it will not affect the healthy growth of the Clivia in the future. There are also many articles online saying what causes wrinkled Clivia leaves, but most are just the opinions of various individuals. Below we will look at a relatively comprehensive analysis.

This article is excerpted from Mr. Liu Xiaozhong's "Changchun Clivia Identification, Appreciation and Cultivation Techniques"

There are too many explanations for the causes of wrinkled Clivia leaves. Thirty years ago, Clivia rarely had wrinkling. Perhaps because of the number and size, only the dyeing factory sometimes showed longitudinal wrinkles, but they were not permanent folds. Some people called it "railway Clivia." In the past 10-plus years, the rate of wrinkling in Clivia has gradually increased.

Over these 10-plus years, some said the wrinkling was due to too much fertilizer; others said it was due to lack of water; and still others said it was due to low temperature. I have done experiments on all of these, and the experiments proved that even with no fertilizer at all they still wrinkled, so the too-much-fertilizer idea can be rejected. Placed in the optimal temperature range and also in midsummer, they still wrinkled just the same. Even with one thorough watering a day, they still wrinkled. So can it still be said to have anything to do with water? Therefore none of the above reasons hold up.

What should be done if an originally very beautiful Clivia becomes wrinkled? People try every possible way to save it. Those who hold the too-much-fertilizer view reduce fertilizer. Those who hold the low-temperature view increase warmth. Those who hold the too-little-water view increase watering. But none of these is effective. Some people, at their wit's end, came up with an idea. After much thinking, they concluded that the wrinkling was due to a "tight sheath," that is, the leaf sheath wrapping too tightly, so they boldly made a sacrifice and simply used a knife to cut open the leaf sheath, then forcefully split it to both sides, and if afraid it would not work, fixed it with string. As a result, the wrinkling still occurred exactly the same (some people also handle stuck flower arrows this way).

What is said above is all what the author saw with his own eyes, and more than one person did this.

The power of seed germination cannot be underestimated. No matter how hard the ground is, the roots must go down and the leaves must grow out, and after seeing sunlight the leaves quickly spread open. Could the leaf sheath of Clivia really restrict the normal growth of the leaves? That would be too contrary to natural law. By reason, even if a small leaf is trapped inside the leaf sheath and not spread out before extending, after growing it should gradually unfold, but the facts are exactly not so. The young of some large animals must run along with their mothers as soon as they are born in order to survive, and their bodies are very large. Their mothers can likewise give birth to them, which is also incredible, but nature is just like this; it must bring them out, and only that is normal. It seems that Clivia wrinkling is not caused by external factors.

Biological evolution always moves in the same direction, toward better survival. If it were not so, the species would certainly be eliminated. The existence of a species is "survival of the fittest." Among the materials that can be seen, observing the morphology of wild Clivia, although it is not as good-looking as the varieties we have improved and bred, none is as ugly as the wrinkled ones. I think nature eliminated those inferior types long ago.

In crossbreeding, although hybridization is complex, it is not random crossing, so certain rules must be followed; otherwise it will be eliminated by nature. Clivia wrinkling is very likely a disaster caused by incorrect hybridization.

Here I can only say "very likely"; I have not stated it with complete certainty. After many years of observation and finding the common characteristics of wrinkled Clivia, I discovered that the proportion of wrinkled Clivia is related to morphology: the wrinkling rate of Clivia is inversely proportional to the length of the leaf stalk (neck), that is, the shorter the neck, the higher the wrinkling rate; it is directly proportional to the degree of roundness of the head shape, that is, the rounder the head shape, the higher the wrinkling rate; it is inversely proportional to body size, that is, the larger the body, the lower the wrinkling rate; and it is inversely proportional to the length-to-width ratio, that is, the larger the ratio, the lower the wrinkling rate.

If the above observations are correct, then excessively pursuing short necks, super width, and super miniature size may be the cause of Clivia wrinkling.