arisaema hybrids

[Bonaventure W Magrys]

I just came to Pascal's post. Yes, documentation is stressed again. Another
thing - what about goals? When I crossed tortuosum onto saxatile, I knew
the flowers had a similar shape, but I am looking for a paler tortuosum,
though it may be smaller, or more robust saxatile. After several
generations of selective breeding - sib crosses and back crosses, hell I
may even get an Arisaema like a white tortuosum with a pleasant fragrance!
If my surviving plantlets were apomictally produced, well, I would be able
to tell in the F1 generation (or be able to test that hypothesis ) and I
would have a few more saxatile anyway. Since I had only 1 clone of
saxatile, I did not allow it to self-cross with some of the male
inflorescences in the same clump, but have saved some of its genetic
material (or all) anyway.

The tortuosum had a lot of pollen to spare, but in the case of my wilsonii,
I only had 1 clone again, and only 1 bloom, male. How else to preserve some
of its genetic material but by attempting to place it on the
well-distributed and, available to me, triphyllum, franchetianum, and
ringens. The pollen was divided up several ways, and at least one of the
attempts fortunately took because sadly the wilsonii did not reappear this
year.

Whether or not I have a hybrid of it, I still would like to get another
wilsonii some day. Just like it was great to have the hybrid Paphiopedilum
Prince Edward of York for all the years that its parent Paphiopedilum
sanderianum was lost, a good Paph collection would still include that
species as well as Paph. rothchildianum, the other parent of that cross.

Bonaventure