hybrids...

[RyanG]

Ok this is going to make me look stupid ,but what is a hybrid pitcher plant?

 

[Alvin Meister]

There are eight species of sarracenia. If you take the pollen from one species and pollinate a flower from another species, the offspring will have characteristics from both parents. E.g. a red flava crossed with a white leucophylla may be red with white areas.

 

[RyanG]

Quote[/b] (Alvin Meister @ April 30 2006,12:26)]There are eight species of sarracenia. If you take the pollen from one species and pollinate a flower from another species, the offspring will have characteristics from both parents. E.g. a red flava crossed with a white leucophylla may be red with white areas.

ok that was what i was thinking but can u take pollen from some totaly different noncarnivorous plant and pollinate a pitcher plant with it or vice versa?

 

[Est]

Quote[/b] ]ok that was what i was thinking but can u take pollen from some totaly different noncarnivorous plant and pollinate a pitcher plant with it or vice versa?

You can try, but the overwhelmingly vast majority of the time, it wont work. Even with plants that ARE carnivorous and not Sarracenia almost definitly wont take. Hybrids between genera are not very common.

 

[CopcarFC]

So could you take pollen out of a Cobra Lily and polinate a Flava? Or could you take pollen from a Ceph and polinate something like an Alata or heliamphora?

How about polinating an adelae with a burmanni? I wonder how many people have tried this stuff.

 

[Alvin Meister]

No, the plant has to be within the same species.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Well, the plant will have to be farely closely related because the chromosome count will have to match up to restore the diploid count on the chromosomes.  Remember Pollin and eggs have only half the chromosomes.  Now with some things there can be a cross between species.  Look at intergeneric crosses with Orchids, but not all orchid species can be crossed with each other.  Your not going to mixx a Paph with a Catt for instance.  There is just to much difference there.  In fact I think Paphs can only be crossed with Paphs, but you can cross a Catt with a lalia, and many others.  Just have to experiment since we haven't done chromosome counts and things to know for sure.  Who knows you may get lucky and cross something anc create a new hybed that evry would die for.  Thats how many things get created. Just don;t get disapointed if things do not work between a cross of unrelated species, because more than likely its not going to work.  Have fun!

 

[glider14]

if you can only cross CPs in the same genus...then why cant you make a hybrid like N Rajah x Aristo or Hamata x Rajah?? they are in the same genus right? BTW im surprised there are only 8 species of sarrs! i never realy realized that because of all of the varieties cultivars and subspecies! lets see if i can name them...Flava, Alata, Piscinatta, Rubra, Purpura, Leucophylla, Oreophylla(spelling?), and Minor? wow its hard to think ALL of the hybrids come from just 6 species and compare that to the Nepenthes Hybrids and i think 82 species!
alex

 

[Alvin Meister]

With sarracenia there are numerous varieties and subspecies. You can also cross hybrids again and again to create an infinite spectrum of plants.

 

[Est]

Quote[/b] ]No, the plant has to be within the same species.

There are, of course, a couple of organisms out there that're inter-genus crosses (can't think of any inter-family ones, though.) But then they're almost guaranteed to be sterile.

Quote[/b] ]if you can only cross CPs in the same genus...then why cant you make a hybrid like N Rajah x Aristo or Hamata x Rajah??

Quick review of terms: Genus specific epithet (Eg Nepenthes (<---genus) hamata (<---specific epithet/species)) is the taxonomic order in which the names of organisms are given.
Nepenthes is a Genus, so when you take one species from the genus and cross it with another species from the genus, you get a hybrid. If you cross the same species, then all you have is another specimine of the species, and when distinct differences arise here, you end up with smaller organizational groups.
But just because plants are in the same genus, it is not guaranteed that a hybrid of two species within the genus will be viable. For instance, not all species within the genus Drosera will result in a viable offspring.

It's all a bit difficult, and things are always getting shifted around. But you need to keep in mind, for the very most part, our taxonomic groupings are genetically arbitrary. Most organisms have been classified by physical characteristics (eg flower parts) and not by genetics, so what we call two Drosera could conceivably be two VERY genetically dissimilar organisms.

Long story short: For the most part, no awesome supermutant hybrids by rubbing pollen from one flower on to a random other flower. But it can happen.

 

[CopcarFC]

If polinating wont work I wonder if different CP's can be grafted together in a way like cacti? That would be cool.

 

[Rubra]

In the vegetable industry you can cross two varieties of the same species and get "hybrid" seed. D. anglica CA x HI is also technically a hybrid. So I guess a hybrid is a cross between two distinctly different related organisms. For all that helps.

Peter