Arisaema pollen available

[Michael Bosold]

is this something we can start here?  I would love to play with naughty =plant parts but of course I would need some assistance... sound cool =though
m

-----Original Message-----
From: Bonaventure W Magrys [mailto:magrysbo at SHU.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2003 3:38 PM
To: ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL
Subject: Arisaema pollen available


This message is cross-posted to Arisaema-L and
The_bulbous_aroids at yahoogroups.com.

I've just bloomed a tuber of A-17 acquired this year from Kaichen =Nurseries
potted up indoors. It was listed as Arisaema wilsonii and appears =similar
to the photo of the bloom on the Kaichen website. It also looks similar =to
the image on  http://www.head-crash.com/~rrh/Images/arwil11.jpg  but the
inflorescence has a more graceful and less thick S-shaped spadix coming =out
of it. The spathe tube is a bit open and the front of the spadix can be
seen as in this photo. When my roll of film is completed I will send it =out
for development and also get the images on disk to put on computer. Just
today it has started to shed pollen.  This pollen I am collecting, into
small (1.5 cc) snap-top polypropylene microcentrifuge tubes, from the
bottom of the spathe with a fine paintbrush. I will store some
refridgerated for future willing and receptive female inflorescences,
albeit to partake in forced, unnatural interspecific sex. This spring =will
ensure me a good crop of female blooms of very vigorous large clones of
triphyllum, as well as saxatile, maybe others, and Arum italicum. Later =I
can be sure of candidisimum, fargesii, and consanguineum and maybe
taiwanense females. Tortuosum and flavum are out, because they
self-pollinate, unless the opening spathe is forced open and the pistils
are coated before the anthers mature and shed their own pollen. In =making a
cross I generally use a not completely yet opened female inflorescence =and
immediately tie a little sack or paper bag over it to isolate it. I'll
probably get blooms of other species but can't guarantee any females.

My hope is to preserve some of the genetic material of this clone, even =if
only in part. Plus a hybrid, especially with the vigorous triphyllum and
saxatile, would be easy to grow (I look in trepidation upon the future
health of this himalayan species in my hot mid-Atlantic summer).

As of now the pollen is fresh and I write to you fellow Arisaemapathic
individuals who may be willing to join in my experiment with any =recently
opened or about to open female Arisaema inflorescences. This is not =always
a very successful endeavor. Out of many attempts I've only gotten five
successful instances of a handful of seeds each. Out of the first 3 only
one plantlet survives (lots more came out of last summer's 2 successful
crosses. I'll write later).

So while pollen is fresh and anyone wants to send me their mailing =address
offlist to magrysbo at shu.edu I will have a small number of tubes to
distribute.
Perhaps at some point we as a group can start a pollen exchange similar =to
a seed exchange.

Bonaventure W. Magrys
Research Assistant
Center for Neuroscience
Department of Graduate Medical Education
NJ Neuroscience Institute/Seton Hall University
400 South Orange Avenue
South Orange, NJ  07079

magrysbo at shu.edu