In addition to all of the wonderful hybrids this species has parented, there are innumerable varieties of the pure species itself. I probably have six or seven different kinds and often feel the "collect the whole set" urge to get more. In fact, I am toying with the idea of mounting them all on one large cork tube to make a Laelia anceps tree; it would be quite a sight for the holidays! I am fortunate to live near one of the worlds premier anceps growers and hybridizers, The Santa Barbara Orchid Estate. Their Laelia collection is second-to-none, and most of my specimens of that genus have come from there, whether directly or indirectly.
So, here I am looking for blooming orchids to pollinate in December, and it isn't surprising that these beauties are on the list:
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| Laelia anceps var. 'Veitchiana' x 'Irwin's' ©2011 MadOrchidist.com |
The one on the left is the variety 'Veitchiana' and is the pod parent in this cross. On the right is the 'Irwin's' that I used in a previous cross; it's flowers have already faded after being pollinated previously (pictured below), but I kept some of its pollinia in the refrigerator. I also placed the 'Veitchiana' pollen in folded up paper and added it to my pollen "cold storage" in the refrigerator.
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| Laelia anceps pollinated earlier; note the slight swelling of the ovary ©2011 MadOrchidist.com |
A couple of my earliest attempts have yielded nice fat seed pods, and at least one is looking very ripe. I am still deciding if I want to use "green pod" seed sowing methods, or wait for dehiscence (the natural splitting open of the pod) and sterilize the seeds afterward. This pod may make that decision for me by bursting! Given that it has begun to turn yellow, it is probably ready for "green pod" sowing now, but I want to give my empty flasks at least a full week or more to be sure they are not contaminated.
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| Maturing orchid seed pod at 16 weeks, approaching dehiscence ©2011 MadOrchidist.com |
Speaking of contamination, the "contamination control" flask from my last post still looks clean, let alone the ones that are supposed to be clean. However, I did make up some Petri Dishes with the excess agar media mixture, and those are growing some interesting (or perhaps unsettling, depending on your viewpoint) things. The first one I left exposed to the air, just like my "contamination control" flask, but for longer.
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| Airborne contamination growing in a Petri dish ©2011 MadOrchidist.com |
The second one was wiped with a small spatula that my Scottish Terrier, Dr. Watson, had licked. Not surprisingly, his mouth is not sterile (even though he has been sterilized)!
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| Dog-borne contamination! ©2011 MadOrchidist.com |
Hopefully none of this will show up in my batch of baby-food-jar flasks, and I'll be sowing seeds before the end of the month!
UPDATE:
Here is a photo of the same Laelia anceps 'Veitchiana', 24 hours after pollination. You can clearly see that the petals are folding forward over the column. To speak teleologically for a moment, the plant doesn't "want" pollinators visiting a flower that is already pollinated, so it immediately makes it less attractive. Flowers are "expensive" to maintain (especially in terms of water loss), so the sooner one gets pollinated and then discarded, the better from an evolutionary biology standpoint. |
| Laelia anceps after pollination ©2011 MadOrchidist.com |
However, I can see why most orchid hobbyists are reluctant to pollinate a beautiful flower that they want to enjoy for a while . . .
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