FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

It seems I've hit that next evolutionary step in caring for pinguicula: creating hybrids. There are so many interesting species out there and lot of hybrids(even cultivars) of some great species. Seeing them inspired me to try to create my own hybrid. I'd love to have my own 'Pirouette' out there one day. I decided to start messing with them since a few are flowering.

I've found that it's harder than it looks. Also it doesn't seem like it will always take. I'm still trying to zero in on that; successfully pollinating the plants and having them create seed. I think this time I actually did it though with an unusual cross of spec. el sumidero I x cyclosecta. The judge is out on the reverse currently. I'll have to be sure to remove all the petals next time. I'd love to see what turns out for the cross and if there is one I'd like to keep (I'm sure I will, after all it'd be a first for me. I thought it was another failure but it appears the ovary is swelling. I want to use cyclosecta as a base for a few hybrids for that fantastic color it displays in its offspring (So I've been propagating multiple clones of it). Provided it does work I'll definitely plant some and then possibly donate some to the seed bank for something a little different.

Success! I believe anyway,, Sterilizing some media and I'll be planting the seeds today. I wasn't able to find a lot of information outside of pollinating them so it was mostly blind.

Some things I learned:

Take off the petals so you can see the fruit more clearly; particularly when it ripens.

The seeds are roughly the size of drosera seeds but I want to see what the set looks like on a more mature plant. Looking at it, I think some will work and some won't.

Necessity called for it at the time but I'll never use a Styrofoam plate to catch seeds ever again.

Cool - I'll be looking for updates on this thread. Hope you have success and get some neat looking plants out of this experiment!

Also, this cracked me up:

Necessity called for it at the time but I'll never use a Styrofoam plate to catch seeds ever again.

I agree with you. Cyclosecta is such a great ping. For about a year now, I've been on the lookout for cyclosecta hybrids and forms. They can be hard to find. I have not heard of sumidero x cyclsoecta before, so you likely have a great one. I have a small laueana x cyclosecta and emarginata x cyclosecta that I'm growing out, and have heard of cyclosecta x emarginata. Would love to see hybrids of cyclosecta with agnata red. Be sure to check out the facebook group Pinguicula Plantation. The lead photo for the group currently features a beautiful picture of gypsicola x cyclosecta. I am anxiously waiting to see that one become more common so we can grow it in person.

That gypsicola x cyclosecta does look like a cool cross. I recently acquired a rectifolia x cyclosecta, which seems a pretty robust plant that got a nice lilac blush on it in the fall. Hope to see what the blooms look like sometime this year.