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Crossing P. esseriana with P. moranesis

It looks like I have a chance to cross-pollinate P. esseriana with P. moranesis var. caudata this weekend. Is this a viable cross? And if so, has anyone here done it?
 
Wowee, thanks! Looks like it takes after the moranesis side more. Heh, can't wait until primuliflora comes into the mix!
 
Arent P. x 'sethos' and 'weser' this cross?
 
p. 'sethos' and 'weser' are crosses of p.moranesis and p.ehlersiae. I'm going to try it with p.moranesis and p.esseriana. Esseriana is the cute little one, usually doesn't grow more than 1" in diameter.
 
As far as I know, the commonly cultivated clones of P. esseriana don't produce viable pollen. This link shows all the successful crosses known to its author at the time, you will notice that there are none with P. esseriana listed second, as the pollen donor, despite this being one of the commonest species in cultivation. Known Pinguicula Hybrids

There have been a couple of successful crosses with P. esseriana as the seed parent though.

So, if I would recommend that you transfer pollen from the P. moranensis to the P. esseriana and not the other way round. Note that very few people have successfully pollinated P. esseriana with another species either.

Good Luck

Vic
 
hi, I found out a great way to pollinate Pings is to take the petal of the flower and rub the "flower" to each other.
I have got some seeds from this metod.
regards Bjørn
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Thanks Vic, that's great advice. I'm going to try the "rip off the petals" method first, and see if there's any pollen in that silly esseriana. If not, I'll transfer the P. moranensis pollen to P. esseriana as you've suggested. If there is however, I think Bjorn's "natural" method sound more fun than the q-tip and tweezer method I was planning on.
 
seed2.jpg

Hi, wanna hear a knock-knock joke?

seed.jpg

*later that night*
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Hey Vic..the esseriana did have a tiny bit of pollen. Not enough to transfer from damp toothpick to the moranensis though.
 
  • #10
Good luck on the seed quest! I can't wait till I start getting plants old enough to reproduce.
 
  • #11
Hey wickedthistle,

I didn't say P. esseriana didn't produce pollen, just that it isn't viable, ie. no one I've heard of has managed to pollinate successfully with it, at least with the common clone that most people grow. I have recently received another clone of this species, P. esseriana 'Giant', I'm not sure if this has sterile pollen as well.

I've never found it necessary to remove the lobes from a Ping flower in order to pollinate it. How do you ensure that you don't accidently self the plants? This isn't likely to be an issue when P. esseriana is one of the parents though.

Keep us informed with your progress and good luck!

Vic
 
  • #12
Oh...right. Lack of sleep here. I took the lobes apart because I was curious to see them firsthand, and to *try* not selfing the moranensis. Excuse my lack of technical terms here - I'm too burned out to look them up again...

I used one toothpick to lift up the receiving pad on the moranensis, a dab of water on the end of another toothpick to pull the pollen straight out and away from the pad. Stuck that toothpick on the esseriana's pad.

Two new toothpicks to try and repeat the same on the esseriana, but there was very little pollen on the esseriana and it seemed rather dried up. Tried it anyway though I didn't see any pollen transfer off the toothpick. I wasn't thinking, and stuck the water in the same tray as the first toothpicks. So I may have selfed the moranensis despite my methods. Either way, I'll get something
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Both pads were shriveled up by morning, not sure if that means it's a sucessful pollination or if they simply dried up from lack of petals.

This moranensis is one of those "longwood" clones discussed in another thread (Tamlin's "Pink I think") so I'm hoping to find out for soon if it really is moranensis var caudata or some wacky hybrid/cultivar. We might have a mutt on our hands. Which isn't a bad thing, as long as I know its heritage
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Any chance that a seed set can be sterile?
 
  • #13
If you get seed, you have viable seed, but you may have plantlets that self distruct early on. It sounds like both plants were pollinated so it will be interesting to see if you have any seed (little white almost seed is sterol seed leftovers). Keep us posted
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