FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hi everyone, I have always had this question in mind. Now I understand that if you cross pollinated a b52 and a bigmouth that it's fair to call the seedlings b52 x bigmouth. But what would you name your seedlings if you cross pollinated two hybrids to make a complex hybrid? eg (royal red x dc xl) x (shogun star x b52)? Would you call the seedlings based on what traits they show? And will the offspring of this complex cross pollination resemble two of the four possible traits? Is there also a way to control what genetics you want in your offspring? Let me know your opinions below thanks!

Genetics are essentially a crap shoot; some pairings will have a lot of offspring that resemble the parents; some will not.

You would name the cross after the two plants it's crossed from, mother plant first.

Trichterfalle x Coquillage is a fairly "complex" hybrid. It only resembles Trichterfalle, yet it is still named after both.

That isn't to say that, if it exhibited some unique traits, it couldn't earn its own unique name, but the general school of thought is to name the cross after the parents.

Ahh I see. So for the example I mentioned, that would be named (royal red x dc xl) x (b52 x shogun star)?

Also which one would be the mother plant?

EGROEG wrote:Also which one would be the mother plant?

The mother is the one being pollinated so the one you collect the seeds from.

ooh really? I always imagined that you would take pollen from one vft to the other and vice versa!!!

Each plant can pollinate the other; if it's a b52 and shogun star, the seeds that develop on the shogun star are shogun star x b52.
The seeds that develop on the b52 are b52 x shogun star.

So theoretically speaking, could you have two mother plants in one cross pollination? Or is that not possible?

So basically, what I mean is if you can pollinate both ways and have both plants make seeds

Yes, as stated in my last post.

Ahh I see, that's good to know. My last question is that if one parent is a royal red x dc xl and the other is shogun star x b52, would the correct naming for the seedlings be (royal red x dc xl) x (shogun star x b52)? Trynna avoid really long names haha. And most times they may not look unique enough to earn their own name as a new cultivar

you could abbreviate it (RLR x DCX)x(SHS x B52)
Can't wait to see how it looks! Good Luck!

Haha thanks but theyre both very young plants so it'll be a while till it happens