re: Dionaea - D. regia Relation

From: Ivan Snyder (bioexp@juno.com)
Date: Tue Aug 15 2000 - 08:47:58 PDT


Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 08:47:58 -0700
From: Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg2513$foo@default>
Subject: re: Dionaea - D. regia Relation


>>I have tried cross pollinations of many different sundews with VFT. All
>>will be surprised to hear that some did cross, though the hybrids did
not
>>survive long.

>It sounds quite interesting.
>Could you please be more precise?
>Filippo Tassara
>Italy

Hi Filippo,
Thanks for your interest. I have tried cross pollinating many different
sundews with VFT from a number of different sundew groups with the intent
to try and establish which might be the most closely related. Here is a
list of some of them:
Drosophylum
Drosera binata
D. brevifolia
D. anglica
D. burmanii
D. capensis
In addition to these, Sean Samia has tried with D. falconeri, with no
apparent results. When I tried D. brevifolia, I examined the seed capsule
and it appeared to have begun to swell. I dissected this and found one
developing seed. I had castrated the D. brevifolia flower a day before
opening to prevent selfing. I used D. brevifolia as the mother plant and
VFT as the pollen donor since with plants having much difference in
flower size, the parent having the smaller flower must be the mother.
After this I tried D. anglica knowing that everthing I have crossed with
D. brevifolia would also cross with D. anglica. Also I just have more D.
anglica to work with. I used castrated D. anglica as the mother plant.
The two capsules showed no swelling to indicate seed developement. I
dissected these under the microscope and found a few seed which were
beginning to develop. As a control I castrated some flowers and did not
pollinate, this time, no development at all. I think what is happening is
that fertilization did occur but incompatability caused the embryos to
abort. If the two parents were more closely related, then development
would proceed further.

I feel that D. regia would be a better more closely related candidate for
cross pollination with Dionaea. Anyone trying this, remember to use
Dionaea as the seed bearing mother plant and D. regia as the pollen
donor, because the styles of D. regia are quite long, and so the pollen
tubes may not be able to lengthen so far. Another I intend to try
crossing with VFT is D. arcturi. I am hoping that one ot these sundews
might be closely enough related to VFT that developement will proceed at
least enough for invetro embryo rescue techniques. Still, it seems most
likely that the resulting hybrid would be unhealthy, but you never know
until you try.

Of course, the most closely related plant of all to Dionaea is
Aldrovanda. A pity this plant is difficult to grow and set seed,
otherwise we could try crossing. Another problem I found is that VFT
pollen can not be stored long and freezing kills it. Though not
practical, I would try crossing if someone in the USA could ship me
pollen of Aldrovanda or D. regia. Growers please contact me, I will have
VFT flowers opening in a couple of days.

Ivan Snyder
Hermosa Beach
California



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