Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 17:50:23 From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg144$foo@default> Subject: Re: epiphytic Utricularia
Dear Isao-San,
Konnichiwa!
> I need any chips about your experiences in propagateing them in vitro.
> I am trying to introduce a few species( j&q ) into sterile condition
> from the seed or the green seed.
> I will greatly appreciate your suggestions.
I have only limited experience with the truly epiphytic species. _U.
alpina_ germinated half a year after I had sown it. I managed to grow
the seedlings into small plants with leaves approximately 3 cm long
and 1 cm wide. Propagation is easy by dividing the clumps that
inevitably form from the irregular network of stolons. I do not know
if any of the plants from my cultures survived somewhere but I have
eventually lost them to fungus infection.
_U. humboldtii_ germinated immediately (you could actually see the
plant emerge from the seed coat a few hours after sowing). As
probably most of the readers on this list know (I write this for
those who did not know yet), _U. humboldtii_ has a green embryo in
the transparent testa, so it is in fact "germinated" already before
it is sown. Old seeds with brown embryos are generally dead. Some
plants of this species should still be in cultivation (in vitro) at
several places.
Sterilization was performed in the usual way with hypochlorite bleach
until the (ripe) seeds became appreciably paler or even purely white
(depending on the species).
> I wonder whether U.camp. is the self- compatibility. Does it need
> the artificial pollination?
Fertility of seeds of Lentibulariaceae is a mysterious thing. Perfect-
looking seeds may be entirely disappointing, while lousy old grains
may germinate after a few weeks or even within days (I once sowed
five years old seeds from a herbarium specimen of _P. vulgaris_; a
significant proportion of which germinated after two weeks). Some
species take months or even years to germinate. There are several
species I have never been successful with, while others grew them
without problems. One year seeds may be sterile even after artificial
pollination, the following year seeds from untreated flowers may be
perfect (cf. the anecdote under _U. alpina_ in P. Taylor's
monograph). The only rule I know is that there is no rule (but mind
the exceptions!).
> Please contact me directly.
The small talk above may be of interest for a few others on this list,
so I posted it here. The rest of the listeners are (like always) free
to make full use of their delete keys.
Kind regards
Jan
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