Pollination

[RL7836]

When I took pics of my Utric blooms a month or so ago, I also had my wife help me snap a pic of the internal flower parts of a U. nelumbifolia bloom (which I then forgot I had). Prior to the blooms opening, I searched all the forums for explanations & pics. While I did find a number of them, the pics were usually too small to see the details or the 'stylized' version still confused me. Combining Joseph's explanation of what to do, with his 'stylized' drawing & the following pic (showing all the parts he references) - helped me to understand how to pollinate (with some friend's hints too!).

Here's the pic:

 

[F R e N c H 3 z]

Nice shot! That looks ready! Any pollination plans?

 

[Jefforever]

All I did was push a blade of grass in and out of the flowers, haha. It works very well. This is also the recommended method for tiny flowers, like pleiochasia (sp?) ones.

I got a good set of seed between U. nelumbifolia and U. longifolia. Of course, we can't assume they're hybrids...

 

[RL7836]

Nice shot! That looks ready! Any pollination plans?

Several were pollinated & some seeds were shared & some were planted. Of the ones that were planted, one was offered in the auction. I would have liked to do a larger offering but did not have the containers to do it (but I do now). Their viability is very short so they were likely 'dead' by the time I received the vials from eBay...

I got a good set of seed between U. nelumbifolia and U. longifolia. Of course, we can't assume they're hybrids...

I also made this cross (one way only though) and have some swelling capsules. Have yours created anything that looks like a hybrid? I tried to be extra careful to not get down below the 'flap' so there would be no selfing but ....

I also tried for some U. nephro x U. nelumbifolia. Most of the capsules didn't even bother to swell but I did get a few seeds from two of them. Are these two not compatible for some reason?

 

[Jefforever]

Yeah, in general it is a bad idea to ship around Utric seeds.

I'm not sure what happened to my plantlets. I haven't looked for about a year now. I remember losing a lot of them though.

Idk, they should be compatible. Maybe the pollen didn't get in the right places... Many species are difficult to pollenate.

 

[jimscott]

Is it just my plant, or does U. longifolia tease you for more than a week before the flower actually opens up?

 

[Jefforever]

Yeah, it does take a while for them to develop.

 

[Lil Stinkpot]

Is it just my plant, or does U. longifolia tease you for more than a week before the flower actually opens up?

TWO weeks.

 

[kulamauiman]

And if you don't pollinate them the flowers last for weeks. If you successfully pollinate the flower drops pretty quickly.

 

[jrod]

Looks a lot like the guts of a Pinguicula flower. Similar pollination strategy?