P. pumila - i'm in love!

[Vic Brown]

Last autumn I received some seed labelled; Pinguicula pumila 'Pasco Giant'. Of several growers I know who also had this seed, I am the only one, to my knowledge, that managed to germinate and grow it. Of the two seeds that I managed to germinate, one has now reached it's full glory.

Whilst the plant is a tiny jewel, the flower is only 9mm across and the rosette has a diameter of 16mm, I'm fairly sure that it is not the 'Pasco Giant' form of this species. I'm in love with it anyway

, 'Vic's favorite CP of the week'!

Does any one have any experience with pollinating this short-lived species? With only one option, to self it, I wonder if anyone knows if this is likely to be sucessful? I am always on the look out for fresh seeds of S.E. USA Pings, and can usually offer something of equal rarity in exchange. Currently, seed of P. caerulea and other forms of Pinguicula pumila are high on my seed wish-list.

cheers

Vic

 

[tissueculture]

Hey Vic,
Nice pics. Regarding your question about selfing and seed. I can tell you that I had around 5 flowering plants in vitro that produced seed. I shook the container and seeds fell everywhere inside. I did not wait to see if they would germinate.
Ed

 

[Jeremiah Harris]

wow I love it too
That is pretty cool that you got those seeds to germinate. How long did it take the seed to get to flowering size?

thanks for the beautiful photos
Jeremiah

BTW. What camera did you use.

 

[Vic Brown]

I sowed the seed at the end of September 2002, 'in vitro', well I floated it on sterile water in a petri dish and placed it in a warm, well lit terrarium. After 4 weeks two seeds germinated and I transferred them by pipette to a pot of peat/sand (1:1) and kept them in the terrarium over winter, until April. One died, the other grew, but very slowly. When I moved the pot to my conservatory (warm greenhouse, built onto my house) in Spring, the plant started growing well and flowered 2 days ago. So 10 months from sowing, 9 from germination.

I treated some seed of P. lutea in the same way and I have about 10 seedlings, which are now growing well. I don't know how long it takes this larger species to get from seed to flowering size though. The plants are just over 1/2 inch diameter at the moment.

Thanks for the selfing info Ed, I'll keep poking around gently in the flower with my toothpick

All the digital photographs I post on the Forums are taken with a Ricoh Caplio RR30, which has a macro function, allowing focussing down to 1cm. At half the price of a Nikon with comparable macro capabilities, in the UK, they are worth looking into if you want a digital camera to photograph plants. Steve Morley (gardenofeden) uses the latest version of this camera, including the photograph he posted of U. nelumbifolia seeds  See this

Vic

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

Vic,

Congratulations! Of all the people I sent this seed to you are the only one to have success with it! Good growing, and thanks for the beautiful flower. I have too little experience to know if this is "Pasco Giant" but that was the lable that came on the seed pack, and the flower appears a little different from my other P. pumila forms. Perhaps someone with more familiarity will help.

 

[Vic Brown]

I've been in communication with the man who originally collected this seed</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">'your pic does look like one of the smaller plants. 'Pasco Giant' is not a pure clone. I do get a few of the smaller plants coming up along side the bigger ones. Normally, the flowers should be pretty flat, rather then tubular as in your pic.'
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

So time to change my growlist from 'Pasco Giant' to 'Pasco'

Thanks again for the seed Tamlin.

Vic