Tag Archives: mitchelliana

AF Surprise?

Sarracenia mitchelliana x 'Leah Wilkerson' - AF clone?AF Surprise?

One of the seedlings I have seems to be turning up as an anthocyanin free seedling. Now, hopefully it’s not because of my lower light levels, but it’s been looking quite AF for the past couple of seasons. Maybe I’ll know more when it flowers, but the way it looks – it is coming up that way. I received seeds from my friend Wes Buckner about 3 or 4 years ago. The cross he did was S. mitchelliana x ‘Leah Wilkerson’.

Now, there could be a few things going on here…

1.) It could be that it’s not really AF but sure looks that way. Yeah, that could be. There’s no red on any damaged portion of the plant though, but we’ll see. Here’s a shot of new growth:

Sarracenia mitchelliana x 'Leah Wilkerson' - AF clone?

2.) It is a possibility that some other seed may of fallen into that batch. I know Wes – and he is really careful and packages up the seeds and works with the crosses one flower pod / one cross at a time. OC if you will. LOL! (Just kidding Wes, but damn, you really are very organized.) So, could it be possible that *one* seed from some other cross managed to find its way into the package? Sure – it’s a possibility.

3.) I am very careful with my seed sets and also work with one flower / one cross at a time. I keep my work area very clear and clean. I make sure no other seeds are visible before jumping to the next seed batch. Could it also be that some other cross may of fallen into the fray? Maybe.

4.) I am not aware that either the S. mitchelliana or S. ‘Leah Wilkerson’ are AF recessive. The S. mitchelliana used in the cross may have a slight chance of having that AF recessive there, but not sure that it would express itself in this progeny unless maybe there’s something AF going on with S. ‘Leah Wilkerson’ that we don’t know about. (Doubtful, but not ruling it out.) I also believe that other crosses involving AF plants with S. ‘Leah Wilkerson’ have not produced any AF offpsring. So, with that said, could it be an antho free mutant? A conversation with another fellow grower (Hi Adrian!), informed me that he has read somewhere that AF mutations could quite possibly happen 1 or 2 in 50-100,000 plants. Could this plant possibly be one of those mutants freaks? Eh,  maybe.

Here’s a couple photos from 7 May, 2011 of the seedling:

Sarracenia mitchelliana x 'Leah Wilkerson'7 May 2011. Here we see the seedling among other plants in the group. It was one of shorter plants, and at first I nearly tossed this one out! I noticed that it was a little different and very bright green compared to the rest of the pot-mates.

Now, this year’s colors aren’t as vibrant as I would like, lacking the white in the hood, for example (as explained in my previous post.) The form of the plant is still interesting, and I do admire it. I could only imagine what it would be like once I get more light!

Sarracenia mitchelliana x 'Leah Wilkerson'7 May 2011. One of the select and unusually vigorous clones from this batch.

I don’t have any good photos of the sibling plants this year. I’ll get some photos later on though. This is in part due to the sub par conditions that I’m in… It’s really sad but like I wrote about I am hoping to get that fixed soon.

The pitcher shape of the plant in question slightly reminds me of another similar cross of a S. mitchelliana and moorei: S. mitchelliana x ‘Royal Ruby’. The upright pitcher with a slight bulge at the top and upturned lid is slightly similar to the seedling plant in question.

Sarracenia mitchelliana x 'Royal Ruby'Sarracenia mitchelliana x ‘Royal Ruby’, freshly opened.

I’d like to think the fourth scenario is what is really happening, but who really knows. Wishful thinking I guess. Some other plant most likely got in there, but again, who knows? It’s a beautiful (yet irritating) uncertainty. A very important lesson to learn from all of this is the importance of keeping clean and organized in all aspects when dealing with seeds, as well as plants! (That is unless you don’t really mind all the unknown plants.) For me, personally, I like to know but won’t throw it away because I don’t know exactly what it is. Anyway, what I know is that I do enjoy this plant and even if I am uncertain about it’s history, I’ll still enjoy and admire it in the present and future!

12 May 2012 UPDATE:  Totally forgot about the scenario that Aaron and Lois mentioned in the comments below!

“Assuming the mitch is the pod parent, it’s possible it had the gene and some wayward pollen from another plant got in there. That would depend on how much Wes protects from cross-pollination. With mine outside, I see bumblebees occasionally doing their thing, mainly on the larger flowers.” — Aaron Carlson

“I have seen a mitchelliana F2 that reverted back to looking AF this was only a few in a large batch of seedlings” — Lois Ochs

YES – these are huge possibilities as well! 

 

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

Ants in my Plants!

Weirdness! So, the other day I get home and my Sarracenia mitchelliana – anthocyanin free clone, was covered in ants! As to why it had ants on it – I have no idea. I never see ants over my pitchers but for some reason, the ants were there!  They were gone the following day, as they were re-located inside the pitcher for a quick snack for the plant. Yum-oh!

Ants in my Plant!
[Ants in my Plants!]

Sarracenia mitchelliana x excellens

S. mitchelliana x excellens[Sarracenia mitchelliana x excellens]

A very rad hybrid here that was from my good friend, CP Mama Lois Ochs of Raccoon Ridge Nursery.  In the spring it puts up somewhat regular colored greenish pitchers, but in the fall, that is when the leucophylla influence really shines imparting some stunning coloration as exhibited in the photo.  The exact parentage is uncertain, other than it was a cross between a mitchelliana (in other words, a purpurea ssp? / leucophylla hybrid) and excellens (or minor/leucophylla hybrid). Thanks Mama Lo!