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Cross pollinating

I was thinking about trying cross pollinating a venus fly trap and a sundew. Has anyone on here tried this? I've been thinking about that today and have been wondering what the result of that would be. Or, if it would even work. I have never cross pollinated anything, so I'm not sure if some plants work doing this and some don't......or how that all works.

But that would be cool to have big traps with spikes that have sticky droplets on them
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i dont think it would work...
i have read about others doing the same, and none to triumph
the seed, if any are unable to grow...
Hellz
 
That would be like crossing a dog and a cat. No, it is not likely to work, I do know that it has been done with some other plants but it is a complicated thing to do. It generally does not work though. Correct me breeders if I asm wrong.

Joe
 
no hurt in trying but it hasnt been SUCESSFULLY done. either the cross didnt take or they germinated and died quite quickly from what ive been told. there was a thought that if you tried crossing with a D. regia(sp?) which is supposed to be the most closely related to VFTs it may work but who knows till its been tried a large number of times.

Rattler
 
Closely related VTF's? Thres only one species, and the defenttion of a species is.... i forget but i think its very similar animals that can mate and produce fertile offspring


I see no reason why it shouldnt work. I have had my finches cross breed with different species (unintentional, of course) in the same cage and produce offspring (most usually died- i dont encourage cross breeding species of animals for that very reason)
 
Hmmmm.......... It COULD work. When pollen from a flower lands on a stygma, the stygma checks to see if the pollen is of its own genus. Here is an example: Drosera alicea and Drosera alicea would work
Drosera alicea and Drosera admirabilis MAY work.
But:
Drosera alicea and Dionea muscipula WOULD NOT work.

In order to work, you would probably need to take to plants to a scientist, a scientist may be able to change the way stygmas detect. So a sundew would think the pollen of a Dionea muscipula is from a sundew, not a VFT!
I dont know if it can be done, since even among sundews, Hybrids are RARE.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]since even among sundews, Hybrids are RARE

Huh?  Many sundews freely hybridize.  It is one of the problems with drosera taxonomy...plants hybridizing when several species grow within close proximity to each other.   Just because you don't see a pot of sundews with a " name X name" on the label, doesn't mean it not a hybrid of some sort.
 
Oh, O.K. I thought sundew hybrids are rare. I almost never see a sundew hybrid.
 
Don't think just because you haven't seen something that means it doesn't exist.

There are over 200 species of drosera and hybrids are fairly common although they may not be fertile.

Some examples: D. capensis x aliciae, D. brevifolia x intermedia, D. rotundifolia x intermedia, D. nitidulla x pulchella (I have this one), D. filiformis x tracyi...just to name a few.

Again, be careful of sweeping generalizations and using words like "always", "never" and "do not." There is much to be learned if you are open to it.
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  • #10
I wondered if that would be a little more difficult than what I was imagining. I suppose it would involve some genetics.

Is there a possibility to mix the pollen of a VFT and the sundew's own pollen? Is there a chance the sundew would see it's own pollen and let some of the VFT's pollen in too?
 
  • #11
An intergeneric hybrid ( a cross between two genera) is very uncommon in the plant kingdom. The best example of this is within the orchid family, but the vast majority of orchid intergenetic hybrids are done via steril culture.

To simply transfer pollen from one species to another in a totally different genus and get viable seed would not be possible in this case.

It Would be a very cool plant though wouldn't it! I always daydream about a cross between a nepenthes and a VFT. Pitchers that snap shut! Now that would be cool...

Steve

Steve
 
  • #12
They are in the same family, so you would likely get seed. the chances of the seed germanating are low
 
  • #13
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Spectabilis73 @ June 16 2004,1:51)]They are in the same family, so you would likely get seed. the chances of the seed germanating are low
Hey Spec, I am afraid your a bit off base here. I can totally appreciate your feel for the plants, this is evident from your many knowladgable posts.

I mean absolutly no disrespect, but to state that two different genera within the same family will "likely" set seed when cross pollenated is just not accurate.

Steve
 
  • #14
[b said:
Quote[/b] (firewired @ June 15 2004,9:11)]I was thinking about trying cross pollinating a venus fly trap and a sundew.  Has anyone on here tried this?  I've been thinking about that today and have been wondering what the result of that would be.  Or, if it would even work.  I have never cross pollinated anything, so I'm not sure if some plants work doing this and some don't......or how that all works.  

But that would be cool to have big traps with spikes that have sticky droplets on them  
smilie4.gif
Hey, wasn't Audrey 2 a cross between a VFT and a Butterwort? Pretty nasty plant, as I recall!
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  • #15
It depends I think on the plant. I don not know enough about these particular 2 but, I have a couple Genus X's from the Schlumbergera X Hatiora and Epiphyllum X Selenicereus and there are many more in the tropical cacti. However some species of a certain Genus may work while another species may not from the same Genus.

Joe
 
  • #17
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]An intergeneric hybrid ( a cross between two genera) is very uncommon in the plant kingdom. The best example of this is within the orchid family, but the vast majority of orchid intergenetic hybrids are done via steril culture.

Just a quick comment on this. There is nothing steril about the pollen transfer, you grab the pollinia and place it on the desired stigma. It is the seeds that are raised in steril cultures, and this is true of all commercialy grown orchid seedlings, hybrid or not.

The other thing is that plant hybrids, of all sorts are not very rare in nature. The species concept of reproductive isolation is fine in theroy, but breaks down in practice. Many plants that are fully capable of interbreeding are treated as seperate species, and in many cases so are there naturaly occurring hybrids.

I doubt that you will be able to produce a viable VFTXDrosera spp. If the cladistics are worked out, that would be a place to start looking for sudews to try. You may be able to do it if you could find a polyploid VFT and a polyploid Drosera, that way you would not need to rely on pairing the VFT genome with that of the Drosera (ie every chromosome would have its complement). However, that is really just speculation.
 
  • #18
there's an old topic from about 3 or so months ago where darcie had proven its possible.
 
  • #19
[b said:
Quote[/b] (droseradude @ June 17 2004,9:09)]there's an old topic from about 3 or so months ago where darcie had proven its possible.
Oh boy Mat.. Your signature is a really big spoof on mine!
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Yea, Darcie did prove it right I think... What ever happened to her?
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  • #20
PAK?
 
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