I could catch the first Anacampseros flowers of the season recently. Good thing these two seem to be opening their flowers around 6 pm. Perfect timing to witness them after work. Of course the light is not ideal for taking pictures but it's possible to take some eerie atmospheric ones. After all, as you know, Anacampseros flowers open only once and only for a couple of hours at most. You make the best of it.
Both An. lancifolia and An. lanceolata grow very big flowers on long flower stalks. It must be hard to hold them up and so they are a bit droopy. I tried to pollinate both. I think it worked for the white one. The pink one, I don't know. It looked to me like there were no pollen to use. Just look at the picture.
An. lancifolia
An. lanceolata
For some reason it seems like a good year for Frithias. Not only my old plants have grown flowers (one of them is still at it) but also my own 4 year old seedlings have flowered this year. This is amazing! The two seedlings are grown from seeds under a name of Frithia pulchra f. rubra (from Kakteen-Haage). I know there are red flowering Frithias out there, I saw comparison pics. Looks like what I've got was the regular kind after all. Seeing them bloom for the first time is fascinating nevertheless.
Completely the same color, right? :D I tried to cross-pollinate but don't know if it took. There's one more flower coming up on the second seedling and others growing on another older plant. But the timing is slightly off. We'll see.
Also, you remember these little guys? One of them is growing a flower now, too! It took 5 years!
UPDATE
This just in. The Adenium obesum I grew from seed has opened its first flower ever! Lots of firsts this year! Maybe the long dark winter was not as bad for the plants as I thought :)
Completely the same color, right? :D I tried to cross-pollinate but don't know if it took. There's one more flower coming up on the second seedling and others growing on another older plant. But the timing is slightly off. We'll see.
Also, you remember these little guys? One of them is growing a flower now, too! It took 5 years!
UPDATE
This just in. The Adenium obesum I grew from seed has opened its first flower ever! Lots of firsts this year! Maybe the long dark winter was not as bad for the plants as I thought :)
Very nice close up photos of the Anacampseros flowers. I hope your pollination is successful. To increase the chance of cross pollination and more genetic mixing, nature often has the female flower part (stigma)and the male flower part (stamens) mature at different times on the same flower. This restricts the ability of a single flower from pollinating itself. Of course there is some variation in flower part maturing times and there is always a chance of self pollination. If the stamens mature first you can sometimes collect and store the pollen until the stigmas mature and then pollinate.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, there seems to be few stamens to provide pollen on the pink flower. But it doesn't take much pollen to do the job, so you never know what might happen. The pink flowers are very nice.
The frithias are just lovely. I haven't had any for a long time. It's very nice to see yours doing so well. Now I am so jealous. I checked and Mesa Garden doesn't have frithia seed on their sale list this year. :( After lithops I think frithia is my favorite mesemb. Glad you are getting some good flowering this spring. And, of course thank you for sharing your plants and their flowers with all of us. Yes, I do like the adenium flower too. ;)
Thank you Bob! :)
DeleteI am amazed myself to see the Frithias doing so well this year. The older plants have been flowering last year and the year before but the younger, although 4-5 years old, have not even tried. Maybe they are just mature enough now? F. humilis have had bug problems this winter and still fight them and still one is growing a flower. Something went right this year to encourage them. I just don't know what.
Thank you for your advise on pollination. I will keep trying with the flowers to come. Hopefully there will be F. pulchra seeds. Then I will of course send you some ;)
Anacampseros flowers are a surprise to me too. I believed them not to be in a good enough condition and the flower stalks started growing much later than last year. And to see Adenium finally flower! This is all very exciting! On a windowsill, I believe any flower is a miracle.
Thank you very much for commenting Bob. So happy to discuss plants with you!
Thank you Bob! :)
DeleteI am amazed myself to see the Frithias doing so well this year. The older plants have been flowering last year and the year before but the younger, although 4-5 years old, have not even tried. Maybe they are just mature enough now? F. humilis have had bug problems this winter and still fight them and still one is growing a flower. Something went right this year to encourage them. I just don't know what.
Thank you for your advise on pollination. I will keep trying with the flowers to come. Hopefully there will be F. pulchra seeds. Then I will of course send you some ;)
Anacampseros flowers are a surprise to me too. I believed them not to be in a good enough condition and the flower stalks started growing much later than last year. And to see Adenium finally flower! This is all very exciting! On a windowsill, I believe any flower is a miracle.
Thank you very much for commenting Bob. So happy to discuss plants with you!
My Frithias are also looking good this year so I will try for some seed. Great flowers,
ReplyDeleteThank you and congrats on Frithia flowers to you too :)
DeleteI tried to pollinate mine but it doesn't seem to have worked...