Tag Archives: minor

Ideas with AF mitch


Sarracenia mitchelliana, Anthocyanin Free Clone

If you don’t know me by know, I really am into anthocyanin free plants.  Anthocyanin free (or “AF” for shorthand) plants are basically kind of like, “albino” plants (just for a lack of better illustration), and they are devoid of anthocyanin which is the pigment that causes the coloration/red in the plants. This particular AF  mitch is “okay” — it is not quite what I’d have in mind in terms of a show-stopper.  It’s just…  nice.  I do see potential in this though. First – It’s already anthocyanin free (YAY!), saving me some time in the AF hybridizing fiasco.

Oh and before continuing with reading below, a warning that I’m going to be speaking quasi Sarracenia-ese.  For readers that aren’t too familiar with Sarracenia, it would probably behoove you to familiarize yourself with some of the species that offer up endless combinations for creative hybridization before proceeding.   Like here or here or cornfuse yerself here and perhaps here …  (Aye, it may help decipher some of me pshychobabble here on mah’ blog, mateys! ARGHHHH!!!)


Sarracenia mitchelliana, Anthocyanin Free Clone

Sometimes with hybridizing,  if you have a concept you’d like to see come to fruition, you just gotta use what you have while you have it available.   Now don’t get me wrong, it would be pretty cool to create my own special select AF mitch (YES! I am workin’ on it), but for time’s sake and with the ideas I have  — I might as well use what I got.  Ideally I’d like to see a mitch with say, a more flared/ruffled hood, or more white/contrast. But oh well, I don’t have it (YET!) and I’m not going to wait another 5 years or so to create what I want at this time, so…  for now I will just use what I got!  I’ll get to that other plant-thing later.  In this case, I’m working with the shape of this plant as a “base” to build on, and also doing a gamble hoping that I can cause more the the S. leucophylla (white) to express itself more so in the subsequent cross.  I kinda like that upward point to the hood as well.

Anyway, I’m posting this for now just as an online record to see what kind of hybrids can come forth from this.  I’ve used this AF mitch  as a pollen parent with some crosses, and last season, I used it as a pod parent with pollen from S. “Green Monster”.   (Here’s a photo from 2009 of one of my plants…)

Sarracenia “Green Monster”

For those of you not familiar with it, S. “Green Monster” is an anthocyanin free mutant of S. excellens, (parents of S. leucophylla and S. minor).  The  plant, from my understanding, was created by Bill Scholl.  On the horizon for me are my own crosses to create other AF S. exellens-ses. 🙂  I am hoping that either the influence of the S. minor, will express itself in the progeny with those neat cute lil’ white dot thingies (called areolas). Also I’d really LOVE to see S. leucophylla express itself strongly in the offspring.  I mean, technically I’m going to end up with a plant that’s half leucophylla: purp/leuco and  minor/leuco. (And why the heck does that remind me of an algebraic equation?) … So anyways, what the heck do I know?

One of the plants I have that has that combination of parentage turned out like this, and perhaps… one of the seedlings from the AF mitch/excellens cross I just did from this batch will turn out to be an AF version of the below — with the mitch shape and leuco color quite prominent:

Sarracenia mitchelliana x excellens

My imagination spurs me on to also imagine a plant with (hopefully) white dots about the upper portion of the pitcher. Perhaps some plants will have a hood that points up like the mother, or maybe slightly hangs over the mouth due to the S. excellens father influence? Eh, But who really knows?!  It was a cool cross to make at the time.  Part of what I find fascinating with this hybridizing thing is exactly that – the beautiful unknown.  So, for the online record, there’s my thoughts/ideas with this cross.  Let’s see what the next few years bring about!

Any ideas out there of what you think this S. mitchelliana AF x “Green Monster” cross may eventually look like?  


Sarracenia mitchelliana, Anthocyanin Free Clone

Windows

At work we will soon be doing a system upgrade to Windows 7…  I’m not quite too sure what to think of it as I’ve never been on 7.   Oh well, like I really have a choice, right? From what I hear it’s pretty cool.

Anyway, there are some plants that utilize the windows system (for trapping) as well – fascinating stuff!  The areoles (or windows, light patches) provide a false sense of escape for the prey.  After entering the pitcher, the victim thinks it can escape  it’s doom by flying or climbing towards the light.  Frantic – it tries to break free… only to be exausted by it’s futile efforts and eventually succumbs to the plant’s power.  Ah shizznit bro, alt+control+delete won’t save it from this windows system.  So after work yesterday, I was just hangin’ out in the garden and decided to take a few photos of some of the plants that employ the windows system.  Enjoy!

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 Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis
Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis

Sarracenia psittacina "golfballensis" x 'Judith Hindle'
Sarracenia psittacina “Golfballensis” x ‘Judith Hindle’
A cross by Brooks Garcia that I grew out from seed.

Sarracenia psittacina x minor
Sarracenia psittacina x minor

Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis hybrid
Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis hybrid
Cross by Brooks Garcia I grew out from seed.

Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis hybrid
Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis hybrid
Cross by Brooks Garcia I grew out from seed.

Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis hybrid
Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis hybrid
Cross by Brooks Garcia I grew out from seed.

Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x 'Golden-Red Jubilee'
Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x ‘Golden-Red Jubilee’
Cross by Brooks Garcia I grew out from seed.

Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x "Green Monster"
Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x “Green Monster”
A collaboration hybrid I did with Miggity-Money Mizzike Wang.
My S. “Green Monster” was flowering that year and Mike was rad enough to lend me a flowering S. minor var. okefenokeensis. The seedlings from this cross are AF recessive and I am looking to use them as a base for further AF hybrids.

Sarracenia psittacina AF clone
Sarracenia psittacina, AF (Anthocyanin Free) clone

Darlingtonia californicaDarlingtonia californica
OK, this isn’t a Sarracenia, however it’s a damn fine California native carnivore that uses the windows system.  Dotted all throughout it’s Epcot center like hood, you can find the windows that provide that false sense of escape.
Freekin’ awesome, yo.

Sarracenia (minor x ‘Judith Hindle’) x ‘Adrian Slack’

As I was checking on the seedlings today, I noticed this one out of the batch.  This is a from a cross I did in 2009, and I started to germinate in 2010 with the parents as Sarracenia (minor x ‘Judith Hindle’) x ‘Adrian Slack’.  It’s starting to throw out little baby pitchers that are somewhat defining now and just found this one worth mentioning. Now, as it matures, it may not even look like anything remotely close to this.  It may just turn into something I’ll compost. Maybe. Who knows. Seedlings will change appearance as they mature,  but I found that this one is putting out some interesting pitchers right now.  It’s a little bit under a year old and I’m hoping it keeps those areoles (the lighter spots) on the tube as it matures. I’m also hoping that the color from the the parent plants will pull through, especially with the S. ‘Judith Hindle’ coloration in the late season. Ah, only time will tell…

Sarracenia (minor x 'Judith Hindle') x 'Adrian Slack'
[Sarracenia (minor x ‘Judith Hindle’) x ‘Adrian Slack’]

Sarracenia (minor x 'Judith Hindle') x 'Adrian Slack'
[Sarracenia (minor x ‘Judith Hindle’) x ‘Adrian Slack’]