Pollinating Pachypodiums

[Jox]

Well this year I thought I would make it my mission to pollinate my Pachypodium's, I have never tried this before & it turns out to be a bit more of a process than pollinating other flowers.

I will tell you the way I went about it, to start I used two different types of Pachies, P. densiflorum & P. rosulatum v gracilis. I would of liked to try & get pure strain seeds but as Pachies aren't self fertile & I only have one of each plant a cross was my only option, both of these plants have great features & a cross of them should produce some very nice looking plants.

Before I go on I will show you the plants.

P. densiflorum

P. densiflorum flower

P. rosulatum var gracilis

P. rosulatum var gracilis flower

The process of pollinating these flowers involves dissecting it to get to the pollen & stigma which is under a hard cap in the center of the flower, to do this I carefully cut the flower in half length ways & then wiped away the nectar which is produced when the flower is damaged. Now the flower is cut & the nectar is wiped away & stopped flowing I carefully peel one side of the cap down & use a tooth pick to scrap out some pollen setting it aside to use on the second flower (other plant), once I open the second flower I use a new tooth pick to collect pollen before adding the pollen from the first flower, I then take the second tooth pick & use it on the first flower.

Here are a couple of photos of the flowers after they have been cut & pollinated.

P. densiflorum

P. rosulatum var gracilis

I hope this information might be useful to someone else.

I am pretty certain it has worked on most of the flowers I have done as it has been ten days & I can just start to see tiny little horns starting to form, I will take some photos & update in a few days.

Also if any one has had experience with pollinating Pachies I would love to hear about it.

Cheers

Jox

[Jox]

Well it looks like my efforts may pay off .

I tried to pollinate six more flowers today, so I hope I will have more success. Here are some photos of the P. rosulatum var gracilis flowers 11 days after pollination, you can see the start of what must be the horns (seedpods).

you can see the tiny green heads of the horns just starting to form

This one has developed a bit more & is easier to spot

Hopefully I will have some nice seeds soon, if anyone else loves Pachies as much as me let me know so I can sort out were the seeds can go .

Also I have tried to find photos of an adult of this cross but can't seem to find any, surly someone has made this cross before. I would love to see how it looks, so if you know were I can find a photo please tell me.

Cheers

Jox

[Stillman]

hey mate I was talking to a old guy the other day about this, he uses fine hair like a cats whisker to pollinate them by hand. They are usually pollinated by butterflies apparently, same as Adeniums. He swears by it and this way you don't have to cut the flower, I am yet to give it a go.

[shortly]

Good luck with it. You never know what wonders just might pop up.

I saw my first monstrose Pachypodium last night, oddly beautiful thing.

[Jox]

Thanks mate, I had heard that as well but was told to use a thick bristle from a brush. I did try it on my first attempt but found it very fiddly & even when I managed to get the bristle down to the pollen I found it would get knocked off when pulling it back out. I did not like the idea of cutting up the flowers but it made a very fiddly job a bit easier & is looking like it may have worked.

Thanks shortly, only time will tell .

Cheers

Jox

[Stillman]

When I went to Merv Whitehouse's place a few years ago he had a table of crested pacypodium grafted healing he said I can have one for $15. I think I had done my budget so I didn't get it. Kicking myself. Good luck with them dude.