Now that's cooking with gas! Did you play Mozart or give them a stern talking to? As long as the Goddess is happy...what fun!! Now your adding Pinellia to the mix? Two more 's. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

This morning I collected the Sauromatum pollen - before 7 AM as this one is an early riser. This afternoon I discovered a diminutive Typhonium bloom that has emerged prior to the leaves - it is one of the species I acquired last year but don't know which one for sure until the leaves come out. Not to worry, though, because if there is pollen, there will be crossing. The T. trilobatum will just have to be shared between the Sauromatum and this little johnny-come-lately bloom. Got to get a pic of it, too.

LariAnn

Early bird catches the flies? All Sauromatum release pollen early or just...?

Late evening yesterday (Sunday, May 26) the Typhonium trilobatum bloom was open, hot, and very smelly, so I anointed it with Sauromatum pollen and also pollen from my diminutive leafless Typhonium bloom. Conditions were about as perfect as they could be for this hybridization attempt. With the Goddess's approval, I'll have berry set and some really interesting hybrids. Pictures forthcoming.

So far all the Sauromatum I have worked with have shed pollen early in the morning. Typhoniums shed pollen at night (late evening or very early AM).

LariAnn

Can't wait!

LariAnn said:So far all the Sauromatum I have worked with have shed pollen early in the morning. Typhoniums shed pollen at night (late evening or very early AM).

Now there's some very useful information I don't recall seeing before. I wonder if pollen release is used in keying species.

OK, here are the pictures - first is the Sauromatum bloom at height of female anthesis (and "fragrance", as attested to by the abundance of flies). Click on photo to see complete bloom. After this photo was taken, Pinellia pollen was applied to the expectant pistils.



The following picture shows the Pinellia species that provided the pollen for the above-mentioned cross.

This photo shows the diminutive Typhonium bloom from which I obtained pollen to apply to the Typhonium trilobatum, along with the saved Sauromatum pollen. The entire bloom, including peduncle, is about one inch tall! Despite the small size, I got a good amount of white pollen from it.

That Sauromatum look enormous! Could the wee Typhonium be T. conchiforme? Sweet!

Evan,
You might be onto something in IDing the wee Typhonium as T. conchiforme. Depends on how much variation there is to the species, as some do have quite a bit of variation. I've done a couple more crosses with wee Typhoniums, most notably a curious one that has a short brownish red pitcher-shaped spathe right at ground level with a long thin spadix sticking up out of it almost 2 inches! Hope that one works on T. trilobatum!

Here's a picture of the second but different wee Typhonium bloom I used in a cross, plus a picture of more blooms like the first wee Typhonium bloom shown above. (click on pictures to see full size)

They're fantastic LariAnn. I didn't understand the scale, 2" of spathe... Is that coarse perlite in the pots? How big is the second bloom? That spathe and petiole pattern on the second wee ones is very striking.

Evan,
Yes, that is coarse perlite in the pots, which in the case of the brownish-maroon inflorescence, is a 4" pot. The other wee blooms are together in a 6" short pot. It is the spadix on the maroon one that is 2" long, not the spathe, which is about only 1/2 inch tall. The perlite should provide scale as to the size of the wee blooms in both cases.

For the record, these blooms are so small that my usual methods of collecting pollen won't serve, so what I've done is to take a small artist's brush and stick the bristled end down the throat of the spathe to get the pollen. In both cases, the pollen was whitish in color and was abundant enough for good attempts. All I need is take on both crosses, and I'll be off to the races!

An artists brush and binoculars May the Goddess be with you!

Actually, what I need is a dissecting microscope for this work - it would be ideal for use with wee blooms like these. Those 'scopes are binocular so I'd have both hands free. Got to put that on my lab wish list. Heck, while I'm wishing, I'd like a laboratory grade binocular microscope for pollen grain study. About $1K should get me both of them.