Ping Breeding

From: Ivan Snyder (bioexp@juno.com)
Date: Thu May 04 2000 - 09:15:12 PDT


Date: Thu, 4 May 2000 09:15:12 -0700
From: Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg1399$foo@default>
Subject: Ping Breeding

Hi Mike and all,

Mike Wilder wrote:
>my interest in hybrid pings has really escalated lately, and i would
like to
>collect some information about crosses that different people have made.
i am
>especially(but not exclusively) interested in a) crosses people tried
which
>failed, b) american species x mexican
>species, and or c) any crosses (attempted or successful) involving P.
>ionantha.

Ivan here,
You know me better as a sundew breeder, but I have dabbled a bit in ping
breeding as well. I bet I know what you are thinking; maybe by crossing
some N. Americans with Mexican pings you could get plants having
succulent leaves and no dormancy, that would be neat. Here are some
things I have tried. I have cross pollinated P. caerulea ( Florida ) with
P. ehlersae ( Mexico ) but got no seed. With a cross pollination of P.
macroceras ( California ) and P. moranensis ( Mexico ) I did get some
seed but these proved nonviable. Another Mexican X Floridan was P.
sharpii with pumila, which also made no seed. Between Florida species I
have crossed P. caerulea and lutea. This again made nonviable seed. Maybe
these nonviable seed could be rescued through invetro culture? P.
ionantha I have not tried crossing. This species is reported to have 22
chromosomes, the same number as some Mexicans, but I have a hunch you
would not get anything out of crossings. I believe the Florida species,
-lutea, caerulea, planifolia, primuliflora, which all have 32 chromosomes
are most closely related to the Europeans having the basic 32 number. I
plan to do more experiments along these lines, such as maybe cross the
easy growing P. grandiflora with P. lutea.

I have had more luck with other crosses. P. macroceras and vulgaris make
a nice vigorous fertile hybrid and I now have second generation plants. I
am pleased with this hybrid and would like to get other variants of P.
vulgaris for further crossings. More hopeful crossings I plan with P.
bohemica. I have seedlings of bohemica, thanks to Ivo Koudela in the
Czech Republic. This tetraploid ( 32 chromosomes ) species is believed by
some to be the ancestor of the octoploid P. vulgaris. I plan to double
the chromosome number of bohemica and cross it with vulgaris to test the
idea.

Ivan Snyder
Hermosa Beach
California



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