Squeezing, and twisting ...Pollination techniques #1

[Silas_Sancona]

Aside from basic enjoyment, an additional benefit of growing a variety of plants is gaining an understanding of how they reproduce. For some of us, when looking at various things in our gardens or collections, thoughts of " What might this look like, if it were crossed with that " cross our minds. With a fairly basic understanding of how plants do.. the deed, In many cases, pollinating to create something new can be pretty easy.. When the cacti are flowering, for example, i can grab a paint brush and dust pollen from one plant onto the female parts of another and often see fruit/ seeds develop if pollination is successful.  Nature itself can do a pretty good job if the right pollinator is around when stuff is flowering. 

In other cases, pollination can be more complex, or challenging.. especially if the natural pollinating bird, insect, or mammal isn't locally native. In such cases,  human hands are  natures best pollinators.. Orchids are perhaps one of the most notable example. Lots of complexity in how they reproduce. with some homework, guidance, patience,  and trail & error.. one can learn how its done and set out on producing something unique and all their own.

While not as complicated as Orchids, pollinating Plumeria and Uncarina can present their own challenges.  Plumeria are normally pollinated by long-tongued  Sphinx moths. While common enough, these moths may or may not be abundant enough at a given time to aid in pollinating.  Uncarina, aka the "Mouse Trap Tree" require a specific type of Beetle that isn't native to the U.S. to produce seed.. Noting the lacking of information regarding pollinating these, i figured i'd try a suggested technique on my U. peltata. This is also a way to get the freshest seed, and test germination for myself since there seems to be  some confusing information on how long seed stays good, let alone what is the most ideal temperature range is for  getting more than a few seeds to grow.

Uncarina: 
The technique appears fairly straight forward.. A:  Pull off flowers, careful not to damage the Female parts. 


B:  Tear em' open, you savage! 


..and carefully squeeze the Anthers between steady fingers, or with a Toothpick. In nature, this would be done by a beetle that chews holes in the anthers and eats some of the pollen, thus getting some of it all over itself. As it climbs out of the flower, it deposits some of the Pollen on the Stigma, which look like a pair of open Lips.  Carefully squeezing the anthers, the pollen will ooze out like Toothpaste. Using your fingernail, or a toothpick, apply pollen between the two lips, or all over both. 
  

Will be testing to see if carefully closing them after pollinating, or not works best.. Now, we'll see what happens.. Should start to see developing fruit in the next couple weeks.. If this works.  Lots of flowers to come, so many more to attempt pollinating.




Plumeria are a bit easier though some who hybridize get a bit complicated in how they pollinate.. One method involves using a fine Scalpel and cutting off one side of a flower and emasculating the pollen on it. After stripping some other flowers off another cultivar,  you'd use a toothpick to apply the pollen to the sides of the Stigma near the base of flower #1.


Not sure why i'd not thought about it long ago but was watching some videos involving a much simpler technique called "twirling"   Simply put, you can make a fake "Proboscis" using Fishing line, tape ..and/or Glue..  to secure the fishing line to a Toothpick.



Simply stick the fishing line down the throat of the flower until you hit the base. Pull up a little, twirl between your fingers for a few seconds, and bring the "twirler" back down to the base of the flower again.. You can also pull out the fishing line from one flower, and apply it to another on the same plant / inflo.  You'll see the pollen stuck to the fishing line.

..Twirl a little more, and you're done.. If successful, you should start to see the seedpods forming within 2-5 weeks or so. Normally takes 6-9 months for the pods to fully develop, ripen, and open.  Concept behind this technique is to initially break the Anthers, and dust the Stigma below. No cutting of the flowers involved.   With Plumeria, even if you pollinate different flowers on the same plant, any seedlings produced will be different than the parent, especially in Rainbow-colored cultivars..   Figured i'd test this technique to my plant out front, and on any others that flower this summer.  ..until i get myself a Scalpel and magnifying glass.



We'll see what happens.   Apparently, the same technique can be used on Adenium, Desert Rose..  Might try it on my Fl. Native Yellow Alamanda when it flowers since it's in the same family, likely requiring the same pollinator.. and i need more seed of it. 

...May take a few attempts since pollination w/ Plumeria is said to be better at certain times of the day / stages in the flowers' life cycle, but something i thought i'd pass along that anyone can try this summer.. 

Enjoy..
Nathan

[Palmarum]

Coolness. I hope it works. There seems to be a new Plumeria every 10 minutes so there has to be an easy way of hybridizing them.

Ryan

[Silas_Sancona]

On 5/6/2019 at 5:58 PM, Palmarum said:

Coolness. I hope it works. There seems to be a new Plumeria every 10 minutes so there has to be an easy way of hybridizing them.

Ryan

Thanks Ryan,   

Certainly something neat i thought was worth sharing..  and a lot easier than some of the other,  more detailed pollination methods one could try.   Agree that there always seem to be X # of new Plumeria cultivars showing up each year.  For now, my goal w/ them is just testing the technique to get seed, if it works.   I'll tackle  'real deal  -with -a -scalpel  pollination later. 

Pollinating the Uncarina is a bit more exciting since these are a bit harder to come by,  and pollinating them is a bit more complicated.. or can be..  It may turn out that flowers on the plant aren't self fertile,  requiring that i'll either have to wait until  one of the other sp. i have start flowering, or,  get another, seed produced specimen of the same species to provide viable pollen. Considering there isn't all that much detailed information, that i have come across while researching, out there regarding producing seed, i figure i can at least get the hang of extracting /applying pollen if i don't succeed in producing seed this time around.   ..And who knows, maybe what i have read regarding potential self incompatibility isn't always correct.  No matter what, i will gain knowledge while learning something new.

[Brad Mondel]

I have been wondering how to get the pollen out of my oleanders and plumerias to create hybrids of my own. I will try your proboscis trick and let you know if it works. 

[gilles06]

Do you mean crossing plumeria with oleander?

[Kevin S]

 A YouTube video showing how.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Kevin S

[Brad Mondel]

No, but wouldnt that be something special!

Oleander has a chromosome count of 22 and plumeria 18-54 so I doubt it would work. 

Edited May 11, 2019 by Brad Mondel

[Silas_Sancona]

16 hours ago, Brad Mondel said:

I have been wondering how to get the pollen out of my oleanders and plumerias to create hybrids of my own. I will try your proboscis trick and let you know if it works. 

   Keep me updated.. Noticed that on the Plumeria out front, flowers fall off within a day or so of pollinating. Those i don't touch, stay on 3-5 days after opening.  So far, the Peduncles / developing Ovary are staying attached to the stalk.