fundulopanchax
August 3rd, 2005, 10:34 PM
This is an extremely rare Cyp in cultivation. It is from China and is very rare throughout its small range (maybe it is so tiny that no one notices it!). While there are some in Europe under cultivation, in the US it is essentially unheard of. A colleague making an order of rare terrestrials from a Japanese grower who actually has an export license (very few do as the domestic market absorbs everything they can grow) offered him two Cyp wardii. My colleague said "sure" but assumed the plants would be seedlings of another species - this happens all the time. I have a garden filled with Cyps that were something else than what they were labeled - the bane of the orchidist whose genus of interest can only be transported when they are dormant, only a mass of roots and no leaves. Amazingly, this spring up came two assumed seedlings, and when they bloomed they turned out to be genuine Cypripedium wardii (certainly worth their weight in gold)! Here they are, with a quarter to show their size (they are about the size of Mexipedium). The "Made in China" sticker was not added by me!
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/fundulopanchax/Cypripedium/Wardiis06-05-05c.jpg
The photo was made on May 6. The two plants were cross-pollenated, and more exciting yet, each plant made a capsule. Given the rarity of this species in the US (we do not know anyone who has one) it was decided to harvest the capsules as "green pods" at 6 weeks. One was to be sent to me and one to another propagator in order to vary conditions and avoid some disaster such as power outage etc that would destroy the entire stock. Most Cypripedium have viable embryos from 6 - 8 weeks after pollenation. As nature would have it, on July 1st a storm dumped a lot of water, which puddled around the plants - Chinese Cypripediums grow on gravel mountain slopes and do not tolerate standing water for an instant. Within a few hours, both plants collapsed. The capsules were only 4 weeks old, and Cyps do not often have viable embryos that early. However, I spent a number of hours in the car (of course I simply ditched work!) and retrieved the capsules. For Cypripedium embryos, growth factors such as kinetin are not usually helpful, whereas for mature seed, addition of growth factor is often necessary to produce germination. Given the extremely young age of the pods, I made two mother flasks of each, one with kinetin and one without. I write to note that both kinetin flasks now have protocorms. The non-kinetin flasks have scant evidence of protocorms, just decomposing placental tissue (the capsules were so young that the embryos could not be removed without taking a good bit of placental tissue). Interestingly, the protocorms in the kinetin flasks are growing in groups in "islands" of healthy-looking placental tissue. My guess is that the kinetin supported the plancenta to allow the extra maturation of the early embryos. I will attempt some photos - unfortunately I used flasks instead of petri dishes. The islands of tissue are very striking-looking. We have about 50 protocorms in the two kinetin flasks. Not bad - the embryos are the size of other Cypripedium embryos, but the capsules are as tiny as the flowers so there probably would not be more than a couple of hundred embryos in total.
Very exciting for a Cypripedium addict! (The lab is in my house and I have an alarm system that calls the police, so no big ideas! On the other hand, if you have Cyp plectrochilum or Cyp arietinum seedlings, a trade is a possibility :D).
Ron Burch
Wilton CT
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y100/fundulopanchax/Cypripedium/Wardiis06-05-05c.jpg
The photo was made on May 6. The two plants were cross-pollenated, and more exciting yet, each plant made a capsule. Given the rarity of this species in the US (we do not know anyone who has one) it was decided to harvest the capsules as "green pods" at 6 weeks. One was to be sent to me and one to another propagator in order to vary conditions and avoid some disaster such as power outage etc that would destroy the entire stock. Most Cypripedium have viable embryos from 6 - 8 weeks after pollenation. As nature would have it, on July 1st a storm dumped a lot of water, which puddled around the plants - Chinese Cypripediums grow on gravel mountain slopes and do not tolerate standing water for an instant. Within a few hours, both plants collapsed. The capsules were only 4 weeks old, and Cyps do not often have viable embryos that early. However, I spent a number of hours in the car (of course I simply ditched work!) and retrieved the capsules. For Cypripedium embryos, growth factors such as kinetin are not usually helpful, whereas for mature seed, addition of growth factor is often necessary to produce germination. Given the extremely young age of the pods, I made two mother flasks of each, one with kinetin and one without. I write to note that both kinetin flasks now have protocorms. The non-kinetin flasks have scant evidence of protocorms, just decomposing placental tissue (the capsules were so young that the embryos could not be removed without taking a good bit of placental tissue). Interestingly, the protocorms in the kinetin flasks are growing in groups in "islands" of healthy-looking placental tissue. My guess is that the kinetin supported the plancenta to allow the extra maturation of the early embryos. I will attempt some photos - unfortunately I used flasks instead of petri dishes. The islands of tissue are very striking-looking. We have about 50 protocorms in the two kinetin flasks. Not bad - the embryos are the size of other Cypripedium embryos, but the capsules are as tiny as the flowers so there probably would not be more than a couple of hundred embryos in total.
Very exciting for a Cypripedium addict! (The lab is in my house and I have an alarm system that calls the police, so no big ideas! On the other hand, if you have Cyp plectrochilum or Cyp arietinum seedlings, a trade is a possibility :D).
Ron Burch
Wilton CT