FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I'm planning on TRYING TO cross pollinate a Drosera Spathulata and a Drosera Adaele as they are both flowering, does anyone think this has a shot of working if so just reply, thanks

Hi! Personally, I would give it a try, but I doubt it would work because of the chromosome numbers. D. Adalae is from Australia while D. Sphatulata is from elsewhere. Sundews that live nearby to each other usually have similar numbers of chromosomes. However, I think the idea is a great one and is worth a try. I would check www.growsundews.com because they have info on numerous sundew hybrids, including one using spatulata. It is hard to cross sundews, but a fellow grower has done it as well: http://www.flytrapcare.com/phpBB3/can-y ... 13634.html. Therefore, I would give it a shot.


Hope they cross successfully and nice to meet you,
Kbud

i looked it up, and it said that most spatulata populations outside of New Zealand have 40 chromosomes, while drosera adeale has 30, so i hope it works, my spatulata is the "fraiser island" form, but as i look at the sundew family tree it would be a HUGE stretch, but ill try it anyway

Family tree http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cp/Evo ... rosera.php, this could be useful to make crosses

bump

Why would you bump this thread?

I guarantee you it will not work, I doubt that even hybrids between the three sisters are possible.

What does bumping a thread mean?

well, you never know until you try, but don't get too excited, of course since D. adelae has not yet been succesfully reported a cross between any sundew, as was mentioned

Some crosses, like D. brevifolia (2n=20) and D. rotundifolia (2n=40) produce a sterile but vigorous hybrid, while others can have the same chromosome counts, (ie 2n=20) and will not be viable (such as D. filiformis x D. burmannii). This is likely due to their positioning on that phylogenetic tree, which you already found.

There are a ton of different crosses that Ivan Snyder tried in this CPN paper (scroll down to the bottom) and you can compare that with the "phylogeny of the sundews" paper online, or send me an email and i'll send you a compilation of different Drosera chromosome counts.

You can see in the paper that 2 different people who try the same cross can get different results using the same plants (ie D. capensis x D. spatulata, which is a common sterile sundew in cultivation failed to germinate for Ivan, while others usually have had success). This can depend on the soil used, the conditions they're growing in, temperatures at which the seed were produced, and more...

It's usually standard to make both crosses (D. adelae x D. spatulata and D. spatulata x D. adelae) since some "mother plants" (or the seed-bearing parent) produce more seeds than the other potential "mother" in a cross between the same plants.

As an example of the relatedness effecting crossing- check out the hybrd of a horse (2n=64) and a donkey (2n=62) you'd expect the offspring to have 2n=63, which would mean when it tries to produce sex cells, you'd expect them to have n=31.5, which is not possible. You can have half of a chromosome... So instead, a chromosome from the horse does not pair up with a chromosome from the donkey in this case, which allows the mule offspring to grow, but it cannot reproduce.
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/hybrids1.htm#mule

thanks, sundewman, im just hoping for a mircale, oh and ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK

Where do you guys find the info on how many chromos. each sundew has? I really want to know!

you have to do some searching online normally, but I've already tracked them down.
just shoot me another email if you're interested and I'll send you them.