Opuntia pollination question

[hypnotoad]

I had a few young O. Ficus-indica plants, of which only one survived the breakdown of a relationship. Is it able to pollinate itself? If not, is it able to be pollinated by other opuntia species? If not, does anyone want to trade me for a pad?

[Sallubrious]

Yes they are self fertile. If it's happy where it is, it should produce several fruit per pad.

[hypnotoad]

Thank you

[Sallubrious]

No wuccas Gunfighter.

The Opuntia genus is very expansive and incredibly diverse, even some experienced botanists are wary of committing to ID's on many of the sub species.

If you want to find out a bit about them then the works of who I consider to be the most gifted plant breeder ever - Luther Burbank could interest you. He achieved by himself what the the U.S. government agronomists couldn't with all their resources and funding.

In the days before GMO he developed an incredible number plants of many different kinds and he devoted an enormous amount of time and energy into breeding Opuntias.

His focus was breeding spineless Opuntias to feed livestock in arid climates where nothing else would grow. He imported Opuntia ficus indica spp into the U.S. from all over the world and painstakingly cross bred them to achieve his goal.

I have a book titled - The Spineless Cactus Identification Project, by Roy Wiersma and it lists well over 50 Opuntias he's tracked down that seem to have a Burbank heritage and that's just the spineless or near spineless varieties.

So to answer your other question, many of these species will accept pollen from similar species but not all will produce viable seed. Sometimes the seed is not important though and having another similar species that flowers at the same time can help with pollination if you are looking to grow fruit.

Edited August 1, 2015 by Sally

[Sallubrious]

OK now I'm going on off on a tangent but ..

In his autobiography a friend of his (Paramahansa Yogananda)wrote these words

His heart was fathomlessly deep, long acquainted with humility, patience, sacrifice. His little home amid the roses was austerely simple; he knew the worthlessness of luxury, the joy of few possessions. The modesty with which he wore his scientific fame repeatedly reminded me of the trees that bend low with the burden of ripening fruits; it is the barren tree that lifts its head high in an empty boast. (Yogananda, 1952, p. 416)

And in his own words

I love humanity, which has been a constant delight to me during all my seventy-seven years of life; and I love flowers, trees, animals, and all the works of Nature as they pass before us in time and space. What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with Nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new forms, colors, and perfumes in flowers which were never known before; fruits in form, size, and flavor never before seen on this globe; and grains of enormously increased productiveness, whose fat kernels are filled with more and better nourishment, a veritable storehouse of perfect food—new food for all the world's untold millions for all time to come.

--------

After reading his works most of the new age bullshit seems almost like hollow bullshit to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Burbank

Edited August 1, 2015 by Sally

[hypnotoad]

Thanks a lot sally, I spent the morning reading about him, what a fascinating man. He'd be horrified to see what the future has done to his craft.

[Sallubrious]

I've wondered about that before too Gunfighter ie what he would think of todays breeding techniques and GMO's ect.

On one hand he was a naturalist but on the other hand he was plant breeder and would have definitely seen the value of GMO tech. I don't know if he would have approved of cross species manipulations and mass herbicide use though. He bred plants to tolerate their environment, pests and all, so I think he would looked down on that aspect of it.

When he was breeding Opuntias he had millions of them and was documented to have complained about the endless torture he endured from the glochids. He started to doubt his own sanity at one point.

I imagine he would have seriously considered GMO tech, as it would have been a less painful way to achieve his goals and it would have saved heaps of time and effort.