it's time for some hybrids

[Millipede]

holy crap! i just found out that capensis can be crossed with aliciae. then i did some googling and found out pretty much all of the south african sundews can be crossed! time to stop clipping the flower stalks and try some pollinating

right now i have aliciae, capensis (narrow leaf i want a broad leaf ), venusta and nidiformis. since i have some money right now i think im gonna order a slakii.

does anybody know how many crosses have been made or tried and if they were fertile crosses?

[Adam]

Hmm... is natalensis a South African dew? If so, maybe I should send you soem polled

[Devon]

I know of a few south african hybrids. I have aliciea x capaneis seedlings right now... I'm pretty sure there is a hybrid of nidiformis and venusta, and venusta x madagascariensis too.

[Millipede]

i just ordered a drosera affinis , drosera Sp. pretty rosettes, and a "typical" capensis. (i figured why not. it was only 2.50)

and yeah, a google search reveals that natelinsis is a south african dew

---------- Post added at 01:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:49 PM ----------

GAWD! i forgot to order a madagascarensis! next time i guess....

[Not a Number]

The original page is gone, but still in the Internet Archives. The classic Wayback archive engine is down for maintenance but you can try the beta version:

http://replay.waybackmachine.org/200...ll_hybrids.htm

John Brittnacher of the ICPS seedback has started a page on the ICPS website of Drosera hybrids. Refer also to Ivan Snyder's article linked on the page:
http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cp/DroseraHybrids.php

John Brittnacher is also compiling a list of self-incompatible Drosera on the ICPS website:
http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cp/...patibility.php

All of these lists are works in progress and should not be considered complete or comprehensive.

If you search either these forums you should find links that I've provided in the past for articles by Fernando Rivadavia giving the chromosome counts many species. Compatible 2n counts will give the likelihood of fertile crosses.

Good luck.

First hurdle:
Getting two species to flower at the same time. The flowers of some species like Drosera trinervia are only open for an hour or less. I'm growing D. glabripes, D. madagascariensis, D. slakii, D. aliciae, D. admirabilis, D. trinervia, D. capensis, D. regia, D. nidiformis and D. venusta. They almost never flower at the same time. D. venusta flowered a month ago. D. trinervia is flowering now.

Second hurdle: almost all the South African species are self-compatible so care must be taken that your crosses do not self-fertilize. Basically this involves removing the anthers on the "female" plant and washing away any pollen. If this is done before the stigma is receptive all the better. Then you can apply the "donor" pollen. This should be done when the stigma is receptive. See either the article section or stickies for an post by Tamlin Dawnstar detailing this method used by Ivan Snyder.

Note: in 2007 I crossed D. aliciae with D. trinervia. Unfortunately I failed to tag the D. trineria flower that received pollen from D. aliciae. I distributed this seed in 2007 and 2008 as D. aliciae or D. trinervia depending on what species the seed capsule was from with a note to look for any plants that stood out as different. I've not heard of any results from these seeds either way.

There is a natural hybrid of D. glabripes and D. aliciae which has been named D. x corinthiaca by Robert Gibson and Eric Green. These have been sold as D. glabripes by one of the Australian nurseries. True D. glabripes is rather difficult to cultivate long term and getting it to live long enough to flower is challenge enough.
http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn...8n3p81_84.html

[Millipede]

Second hurdle: almost all the South African species are self-compatible so care must be taken that your crosses do not self-fertilize. Basically this involves removing the anthers on the "female" plant and washing away any pollen. If this is done before the stigma is receptive all the better. Then you can apply the "donor" pollen. This should be done when the stigma is receptive.

thats gonna be hard.

i take it the pollen does not store well?

[Not a Number]

I don't know, I never tried storing Drosera pollen. I seem to recall Ivan mentioning it doesn't store well. I've kept Sarracenia pollen in the the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks but I couldn't say with any certainty if it was still viable or not.

[jimscott]

Lemme know when you can successfully cross a VFT with a butterwort....