chalyse said:None of the blooms that I missed pollinating set pods from ants, bees, or butterflies even though we have a backyard metropolis of all of them.
The daylily species are naturally cross-pollinating, so if we grow specimens of any of the diploid species they will set pods naturally (or else the species would not grow new individuals in native regions. The species will have what are called pollination syndromes. Those are sets of characteristics that are different for different pollinators. For example, some daylily species bloom during the day (
Hemerocallis fulva) and others open their flowers in the evening (
Hemerocallis citrina). Those species will attract different pollinating insects and will have different pollination syndromes. Once hybridizers crossed species the different pollination syndromes were broken apart and no longer work as effectively.
In my growing conditions, 'Tetrina's Daughter' sets many pods naturally. So does 'Ophir'. Both are night blooming and scented. The pods are probably set by the night-flying moths I have seen visiting the flowers. Both cultivars are only a few generations removed from the species and there pollination syndromes have not been completely broken apart.
Many different insects visit daylily flowers for the pollen. That includes bees that collect the pollen as well as insects such as grasshoppers that eat the pollen. Ants collect either nectar or some other substance in the flowers.
'Stella de Oro' typically sets natural pods. I think that occurs so often because the stigma and anthers are very close to each other physically because the pistil and anthers are about the same length.
When insects visit a flower for pollen, they not only remove pollen but they also accidentally spread pollen on the different flower parts. That includes spreading the pollen from other cultivars that they have visited previously on the anthers of the flower they are currently visiting. Thus pollen from anthers that have been visited may be contaminated with pollen from other cultivars.
An example, of the possible confusion that may occur. Many daylily hybridizers assume that natural pods are few and far between. Some do not take precautions to prevent natural pollinations. I have a cultivar that was registered as a tetraploid. I pollinated hundreds of flowers each year with pollen from tetraploid cultivars (without safe hybridizing techniques). Pods would be set, last for a while and then abort. I did this year after year hoping to get a successful pollination. Then I did. But then as a test I tried hundreds of pollinations with pollen from diploid cultivars. Pods were set and most matured. The cultivar is probably a diploid and information in the hybridizer's printed catalogue suggests that is the case. The pod that appeared to be set by hand-pollination from a tet was most likely a natural pollination with at least some diploid pollen.
It is important to be aware that natural pollinations can occur in daylilies especially when one is looking for something that is expected to be infrequent or rare, since even in daylily cultivars that do not set natural pods at an easily visible rate, they can occur. It is also important to know depending on how pollen is collected for hybridizing that it may already be contaminated with the pollen from other cultivars.
