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Does it open more than this?

  • Thread starter jimscott
  • Start date

jimscott

Tropical Fish Enthusiast
Should I attempt to hand-pollinate them now or will they open more than this?

Picture002.jpg
 
That's as far as it Darlingtonia flowers will open. The anthers are fairly well recessed near the base of the petals too.

This thread on ICPS shows the anatomy of Darlingtonia flowers:

http://icps.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=darlingtonia&action=display&thread=1845

From the photos you can see why the larger European honey bees have difficulty pollinating these flowers.

Only one of my flowers developed normally, the other 3-4 did/have not grown stalks. One of these opened (deformed) still at the base of the plant. I did find an infestation of mealybugs which may be the problem.
 
Yeah, that's about it. Mine were slow to develop this year but look to be intact -- all three in the same pot . . .
 
That's as far as it Darlingtonia flowers will open. The anthers are fairly well recessed near the base of the petals too.

This thread on ICPS shows the anatomy of Darlingtonia flowers:

http://icps.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=darlingtonia&action=display&thread=1845

From the photos you can see why the larger European honey bees have difficulty pollinating these flowers.

Only one of my flowers developed normally, the other 3-4 did/have not grown stalks. One of these opened (deformed) still at the base of the plant. I did find an infestation of mealybugs which may be the problem.

Wow! Those are excellent pics of the gametes. Even I can figure this out! Wish me skill... I'm going in!
 
Okay, so I started pulling petals to get to the appropriate parts and quickly realized that pollen was falling all over the place, but mostly onto flower petals. I abandonned my paint brush and touched the pollen from the petals to the stigmas. If I understand correctly, the stigmas have a sticky substance that will adhere to the pollen, right?

Picture007-7.jpg


Picture009-4.jpg


Picture011-4.jpg
 
When the pollen is ready, the anther surface becomes "roughened" by those mature recognizable pollen grains. A whole stamen can be removed from the flower or its neighbor with a tweezers and applied to the pistil to ensure seed-set.

The Darlingtonia seeds mature about two months after fertilization, at least in my experience, growing them outside in Northern California; they are then stratified for a like amount of time (I usually store them, rolled in paper towel, in a zip-lock bag with a few strands of moistened long-fiber sphagnum) and can then be sowed . . .
 
FYI none of the unstratified seeds I had sown earlier have sprouted. One set has been sitting under the same conditions as the stratified set since Aug 2008. The stratified set had about 85% germination. These seeds were freshly harvested from a plant in cultivation and never cold stored prior to stratification or sowing.

A second unstratified set which had been cold stored prior to sowing has not germinated either, since January 2009. The stratified set sprouted within 14 days with 90% germination. Seeds were field collected.

Many of the carnivorous plant growers in Europe report that stratification is not necessary. So far my experience says otherwise.

I would hand pollinate again a few days later just in case the stigmas were not receptive.
 
I agree with stratification in the case of Darlingtonia seeds and have had similar results in the past. Those that I did not outright refrigerate, resulted in about a 30% germination rate, probably due to the fact that my rarely-heated kitchen falls into the fifties during the Fall; and, as a result, some seeds were stratified by default . . .
 
Now that I denuded the scapes of their petals should I try to protect it / construct a makeshift bag that "breathes"?
 
  • #10
No, it's fine the way it is . . .

Don't bother with a muslin bag or anything else. That would only be a concern about potential contamination (unwanted cross-pollination) between, say, a Sarracenia you were planning on hybridizing, with surrounding plants and their flowers. Darlingtonia can only self-pollinate or cross-pollinate with flowers of its own species, and it's fine without its petals . . .
 
  • #11
Here are pictures of the flowers that did not grow stalks:
P5300007.jpg

P5300006.jpg

P5300005.jpg
 
  • #12
Could wind and rain dislodge the pollen? Is fertilization instant or does it take awhile?
 
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