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From the lab of the evil Dr. Frankensnyder: -

man-made Drosera x tokaiensis

Ivan Snyder hand crossed D. spatulata var gympiensis with D. rotudifolia 'Charles Darwin' in March of 2010. He has reported that the plants he is cultivating from the seed have already flowered. These plants are unique because they have white flowers where as all the natural hybrids have pink flowers.

P9140021.jpg


the plants have yet to be treated with Colchicine to make them fertile polyploids.

D. belezeana - natural hybrid of D. rotundifolia and D. intermedia. These are tetraploids having been treated with Colchicine and should produce fertile seed if ever they can be made to flower
P7200007.jpg
 
Interesting, NAN! Great shots!
 
Ooohhh, aahhhhh...I'd like to try the D. belezeana myself.
 
Very cool achievement.

I think I recall Synder speaking at one of the BACPS meetings a few years back -- his use of colchicine, etc . . .
 
The part that sucks is you can no longer get Colchicine from chemical supply outlets. Last year the FDA granted exclusive (3 and 7 years) use to one drug company. Colchicine for medicinal purposes predates the FDA. Said company immediately sued all the other manufacturers of Colchicine and raised the price from 9 dollars a bottle (9 cents per tablet) to $465 a bottle. Corporate greed at its best. Colchicine is used to treat gout. Don't you love how altruistic drug companies are?
 
Dr. Frankensnyder, that's rich, LOL! Ivan has had fun over the decades producing many unnatural hybrids to plague future generations of growers with taxonomic inclinations. I grew many of his creations, and there were some remarkably beautiful plants. My problem with all this is Ivan is shy to publish his babies at the cultivar rank so future generations might have access to the reference, while at the same time being very generous with his distributions. There will be much head scratching some 50 years from now after Ivan and those who knew him go to the big bog in the sky. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if a plant is worthy of large distribution, it is worthy of publication at cultivar rank. We need to take the long view when creating new hybrids, or distributing material prior to publication at whatever rank. This generation of CP'ers have access to forum discussions regarding new creations or collections, but this medium is electronic and has no assurance of permanence. Cultivar publications don't have to always be about a superior looking plant, it can also serve as a defining reference especially needed when distributions become exponential.

My favorite creation was his Drosera x obovata, which he made diploid so it was fertile. A stunning looking plant, and fascinating!

It should be noted that Colchicine is extremely toxic and will screw up your cell meiosis as well as the plants if even a bit gets ingested.
 
The part that sucks is you can no longer get Colchicine from chemical supply outlets. Last year the FDA granted exclusive (3 and 7 years) use to one drug company. Colchicine for medicinal purposes predates the FDA. Said company immediately sued all the other manufacturers of Colchicine and raised the price from 9 dollars a bottle (9 cents per tablet) to $465 a bottle. Corporate greed at its best. Colchicine is used to treat gout. Don't you love how altruistic drug companies are?


I hadn't heard that about colchicine, some of which I may still have on the shelves. We had used it years ago to experimentally induce polyploidy in oysters, in an effort to keep them in non-spawning state. The idea was to eventually produce oysters from "seed" that never went into a breeding -- inedible -- state . . .
 
There must be some provisions since Colchicine is used extensively in research such as yours or in horticulture to induce fertility or create more vigorous strains. Probably the hoops you have to jump through or fees you have to pay for permits puts it out of reach of the amateur horticulturalist.

Ivan said the stuff obtained from medical tablets didn't seem potent enough to be effective but fortunately one of his contacts had some of the reagent grade stuff left over.

Tamlin, Ivan has registered the D. x obovata as a cultivar 'Ivan's Paddle'. While it is a fertile diploid he says the seed offspring are usually so weak they are not worth cultivating. Dr. Frankensnyder has plenty of other horrors waiting to be unleashed from the lab.

http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v37n1p22_26.html#paddle
 
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Huh...interesting read there NaN. Since your belezeana is a natural hyrbid does it require dormancy unlike "Ivans paddle?"
 
  • #10
I have a flowering D. belezeana "nightmare". Just started unfurling the stalks (2). Should have some flowers shortly. I was going to try growing without dormany (since I'm going to get some seed), but was told it needs it.
 
  • #11
Yes, they are from the NJ Pine Barrens and needs dormancy. In fact it already has formed the winter bud since July when I took the picture. This is typical of other Drosera from the Pine Barrens in my collection. They'll go into the fridge in a couple of weeks.

If you made your own D. x belezeana by crossing D. rotundifolia 'Charles Darwin' and D. intermedia "Cuba" you could end up with plants not requiring dormancy.

D. belezeana is not fertile unless "spliced" with Colchicine to make them tetraploid. You might get seed but otherwise they shouldn't be viable.

See Ivan Snyder's article on Colchicine Treatment on Sterile Hybrid Sundews
 
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  • #12
There must be some provisions since Colchicine is used extensively in research such as yours or in horticulture to induce fertility or create more vigorous strains. Probably the hoops you have to jump through or fees you have to pay for permits puts it out of reach of the amateur horticulturalist.

Ivan said the stuff obtained from medical tablets didn't seem potent enough to be effective but fortunately one of his contacts had some of the reagent grade stuff left over.

Tamlin, Ivan has registered the D. x obovata as a cultivar 'Ivan's Paddle'. While it is a fertile diploid he says the seed offspring are usually so weak they are not worth cultivating. Dr. Frankensnyder has plenty of other horrors waiting to be unleashed from the lab.

http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v37n1p22_26.html#paddle

Colchicine is still available -- albeit at somewhat elevated prices, both for the material and the hazardous material shipping -- through tissue culture suppliers, such as Phytotech:

http://www.phytotechlab.com/Detail.aspx?ID=761
 
  • #13
Thanks for the info, I'll pass it on to Ivan for when his source dries up.
 
  • #14
I always love Ivan's work!!!! Wish I lived in Cali so I could experience his awesomeness firsthand.
Thanks for the update!
 
  • #15
Yes, I was aware that Ivan registered D. 'Ivan's Paddle' but there are soooo many more!
 
  • #16
True, he did have quite a few siblings of 'Ivan's Paddle' that he gave away because he couldn't get them to flower. He gave away his D. capillaris x rotundifolia for that reason but you can still find those for sale in a couple nurseries.

And this is the second time he's made D. x tokaiensis.
 
  • #17
Here is Ivan's white flowered plant as of 24 Aug 2010. He did not get a photo of the flower in bloom:

Dxtokaiensis82410.jpg

(photo courtesy Ivan Snyder)
 
  • #18
I think the 'Paddle' is one of the most attractive of sundews.

---------- Post added at 08:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:22 PM ----------

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  • #19
I thought it was spelled as D. Xbeleziana (an I instead of an E)
 
  • #20
To quote taxonomist Dr. Jan Schlauer:

1. The name "beleziana" was coined by E.G. Camus (in Morot, Journal
de botanique, 5: 198, 1891) to commemorate the collector, Ms Beleze
(not "Belez" nor "Belezi" that would have justified the epithet
"beleziana"), and must for orthographical reasons be spelled
"belezeana".

2. The plant by this name is most probably not the hybrid that Camus
hypothesized. See his figure, which probably only depicts a malformed
_D. rotundifolia_ with an ascending scape (note that two scapes of
the same rosette are straight!):

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/22090#208

The leaves in artificially created hybrids between _D. rotundifolia_
and _D. intermedia_ always have a longer cuneate base to the lamina
and usually the lamina is longer than wide. In the picture the leaves
show the normal condition in _D. rotundifolia_. _D. belezeana_ plants
were allegedly always sterile (indicating hybrid origin) but _D.
intermedia_ is highly questionable as a parent species. Unfortunately
no type specimen could be traced so far for _D. belezeana_.

Probably a new name needs to be established for true hybrids between
_D. intermedia_ and _D. rotundifolia_.

Note: Dr. Frankensnyder has crossed artifical/man-made D. rotundifolia x D. intermedia but he has them all given away.
 
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