I'm just getting into hybridizing and I noticed something strange. I'd say 99.9% of my daylilies have what I consider "normal" pollen-bright orange & fluffy. However, I have one cultivar that has lemon yellow pollen. It also doesn't produce as much pollen as the others. Does anyone else have a plant like this? Do you know if the pollen is fertile? I just tried using some today but it's really hot so maybe the pod won't set due to the weather. Here's a picture of normal pollen & pollen from Carousel Princess:


The background is a white sheet of paper but it looks blue. The pollen color difference is correct though. Just wondering if anyone else has come across this too.

It is likely that the yellowish pollen is not fertile.

Interesting. Most of my pollen is more of a yellow color and I have seeds from that pollen. What color is pollen supposed to be?

Becky,
Sometimes the normal pollen looks more yellow than orange but never as pale as that of Carousel Princess. It almost matches the flower color.


Thanks Maurice! I thought maybe it wouldn't be fertile. I did do some crosses with it but I doubt I'll get any pods. It is pod fertile though so I can do crosses that way.

Elena - Thanks for clearing up my confusion.

Some yellow pollen is not good, but I do have some daylilies that have yellow pollen that work.
Celtic Butterfly has yellow pollen but I have seedlings from it.

Some of our seedlings have really hard yellow-white pollen, that pollen is definetly no good.
If it is fluffy I would guess that it is good.

I think some of the older cultivars have smaller, less-pollen filled, lighter anthers. At least, that's what I was assuming, but I'm a new hybridizer, too! Off of the top of my head, I think the ones that have the smaller anthers/less pollen in my garden are Saint Elmo's Fire, "Red Challenge" (an old NOID), Starman's Quest, Black Plush, and Night Embers, and maybe one or two others. Considering what is currently producing seed pods though, maybe the 'poor pollinator' theory is more accurate.

I would say my most difficult pollinator, though, is Jim's Pick and a seedling that I had, both of which have large, fluffy pollen heads, which doesn't fall in line with the aforementioned theory.

Carousel Princess is listed in the database as both pod and pollen fertile, so I would think that the pollen would be okay.

Daylily (Hemerocallis 'Carousel Princess')

However, there are no cultivars registered in the AHS online database as having 'Carousel Princess' as a parent; having registered offspring would definitively indicate whether the plant was male/pollen-fertile, female/pod-fertile or both. Unfortunately, lack of registered offspring is not hard evidence.

Yellowish-whitish, or lumpy, "hard" pollen tends not to be good. However, plants can have perfectly normal looking pollen and that pollen can nevertheless be sterile.

There are many fertile plants in the database without registered children, so I'd never use that as a guideline as to whether or not the pollen is fertile. Maybe it doesn't make the best children, which could be another reason why there are none registered. It seems to me that if the hybridizer lists it as pod and pollen fertile, then it probably is.

Okay, now I wish I had tried hybridizing with it sooner! I guess I'll try to do some crosses now that it isn't so hot and see what happens.

I can't say the pollen is fluffy, more like grainy but that isn't quite right either. It's kinda hard to tell since it produces so little pollen and the anthers are tiny to begin with!

If I get any pods this year from the pollen I'll definitely plant some seeds. If I get any plants next year we'll know for sure!

Thanks for all the advice everyone! I'll let everyone know if I get any pods!

The entry in the database lists it as pod fertile and pollen fertile but how does one know/verify that it was the hybridizer who listed it that way? Or what exactly the evidence is that the entry is based on or how reliable that evidence is?

Unfortunately pollen fertility is a bit more complicated than a test of simply pollinating a flower with a specific pollen. That flower may have been already pollinated naturally by an insect before the test pollen is placed on the stigma.

When pollen is not fertile whether a pod will set or not will depend on the type of biological problem. If 'Carousel Princess' has infertile pollen then either no pods will be set or typically they will set but abort relatively soon after starting to develop.

There are other circumstances that cause pollen to not be fertile. If a cultivar opens its flowers the evening before or during the night and it rains sufficiently, after the pollen is fluffy (or perhaps possibly it is extremely humid) the pollen can be water damaged (basically some or all of it explodes) That can cause a change in colour and in texture so that the pollen may resemble genetically sterile pollen and not be fertile or be fertile with difficulty.

This is pure conjecture on my part, but I will add it to the discussion - - - I have heard it said that the less golden-yellow the pollen is, the lower the fertility.

In my garden, Randy Stephens, Bubba on Tour, and Leslie Renee are examples of those having golden-yellow pollen and all are quite fertile. Alan Lane Agin has pollen that is much less golden, but is still fertile. I have one seedling that has gray "pollen" while its siblings have golden-yellow pollen. I tried a few crosses with the gray pollen and had none take, not even an aborted pod, so I presume it is infertile. I also have one cultivar in particular, Blissful Blackberry Pie, that has lemon-yellow pollen that is, as you describe, lumpy and hard to use. Further, it seems to have low fertiliey based on the percentge of successful crosses. I freeze pollen for future use and see some (sorry, can't remember which, but both cultivars and seedlings) come out of the freezer vary hard and lumpy and difficult to use while most are still fluffy, so this seems to be dependent on the particular plant. This same plant, Blissful Blackberry Pie, also often fails to produce a viable pistil when the temperature gets hot.

Larry