Tag Archives: Sarracenia

Variation: Flower Color

 

Sarracenia rubra wheryii "Chatom Giant" x "Skywatcher"
[Sarracenia rubra wherryi “Chatom Giant” x “Sky Watcher”, flower variations]

Happy May everyone. May is here, where has this year gone? We’re almost half way through ’11. Nuts. Anyway, Happy May erray-body!  I wanted to share and illustrate a little variation again on genetics and breeding Sarracenia.  It always makes things so freekin’ interesting.  You never know what parent plant or grand parent plant, (or beyond) would influence the current progeny.  Fun stuff this is. Lately, I’ve been pointing out a lot of the variation on the pitchers – such as shape, color, size… so on and so forth.  However, I noticed that this one particular cross had different colored flowers.  The flowers photographed above, are those of a cross that was created by fellow Sarracenia addict, Brooks Garcia. It is S. rubra ssp. wherryi “Chatom Giant” x “Sky watcher”. He sent me some seeds of his cross 3 years ago that I grew out. Above are two different flowers of this same cross.

Genetics, always fun!

(By the way,there’s a third adolescent seedling that has a flower bud that hasn’t opened up yet, but I’ll share that when it does. I can’t really tell the color of that third unopened just yet.)

Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’

So, I think a recent event had a few people talking about some royal thingmabobberish shindig thang… rrrrrrrright? I haven’t been watching the news or anything, so not sure what all the hullabaloo is about. I’ll probably hear about it sooner or later.  I’ve just been overhearing bits and pieces of “royal-this” or “royal-that”…

Anyways, since we’re on the topic of “royal-this and thats” – I might as well throw this into the mix. Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’! (Formerly the Sarracenia known as Prince,  no, I mean — “Big Red”) 😉

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

Sarracenia 'Royal Ruby'
[Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’]

The following info on S. ‘Royal Ruby’ can be found in the International Carnivorous Plant Society Newsletter:
(http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v38n1p12_22.html#Ruby)
“Sarracenia ‘Royal Ruby’  is a natural S. ×moorei hybrid collected from northern Florida in 1991. Phil Faulisi obtained the plant in 1992. Even before the pitchers are fully developed and open they display a distinct pink flush that deepens as the pitcher matures. Overall the lower portion of the pitchers is coloured a deep olive-green while the upper portions are suffused in lush pink/red raspberry tones. The quality of this colour is best described as luminous or iridescent, and often makes clusters of pitchers appear to glow. Under intense light this raspberry colour can suffuse the upper three-fourths of the pitcher but more commonly it dominates the upper half to upper third of the pitcher. This plant shows a high degree of the S. leucophylla influence in the shape of the hood displaying significant ruffling. Likewise, fenestrations on the hood and upper regions of the pitcher expose the S. leucophylla influence in the cross. The pitchers of S. ‘Royal Ruby’ typically grow 76-86 cm (30-34 inches) in height, but pitchers over 107 cm (42 inches) in height have been observed (PF). The flowers are bi-coloured, the petals being predominantly red with orange/yellow tips. This plant must be reproduced only through vegetative means to ensure that its unique nature is maintained.

The name ‘Royal Ruby’ was chosen by Phil in May 2004 because of the regal beauty of the plant and how the colour is similar to that of Burmese rubies. S. ‘Royal Ruby’ was previously distributed by Phil as S. ×moorei “Big Red”.

http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v38n1p12_22.html#Ruby

Widemouth Hybrid

Back in 2009, I did a cross using a Sarracenia flava form, informally called  flava “widemouth”, just cuz… it gots a big ol’ mouf!  It’s nectar roll is pronounced more than a typical Sarracenia flava. The pollen parent was a Sarracenia leucophylla “red” x minor var. okeefenokeensis

So, flash forward to 2011, this is what one of the seedlings is looking like.  Its mouth is somewhat pronounced and it has some of those little light window things (areoles) visible around the tube.  It’s only 2 years old, but for this “kid”, I am really hoping that mouth stays pretty big as it grows up.

Sarracenia flava "widemouth" x (leucophylla "red" x minor var. okeefenokeensis)
[Sarracenia flava “widemouth” x (leucophylla “red” x minor var. okeefenokeensis)]

Sarracenia flava "widemouth" x (leucophylla "red" x minor var. okeefenokeensis)
[Sarracenia flava “widemouth” x (leucophylla “red” x minor var. okeefenokeensis)]

That’s WASSSUP!

Yo, wasssss*up*!  This moorei’s wasssss*up*, that’s foh sho, homies.
Here’s some moorei radness to kick this week off!

Sarracenia moorei - Milton, FL
[Sarracenia moorei – Milton, FL]

Dude, this is straight up — straight up! A couple of years ago, fellow carnie Dean Cook sent me a small division of an interesting moorei.  (Dean runs Cook’s Carnivorous Plants – be sure to check his site out, good selection, price, and quality!) When it started to pitcher for me a couple years ago, I noticed the pitchers having this pretty fresh trait – the hood on this moorei points up.  Pretty nifty, methinks! This year, now that the division is more mature, it is putting out some nicely colored pitchers full of that upwardly straight up goodness. That’s WASSSUP! 🙂

Genetics

 

Genetics
[Sarracenia ‘Wilkerson’s Red’ OP]

My momma always said, Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.
– Gump

You know, genetics is a pretty funny thing. Especially when it comes to breeding and Sarracenia seedlings.  It’s always interesting to see what comes up.  Some are good, some bad. Some just fugly.  The genetic diversity is pretty interesting though. Check out this post on diversity from fellow blogger James at Lost in the Landscape. Now when I do crosses I do have a general idea in mind of what the progeny will kind of look like. I have ideas and hopes of what characteristics would pull through from the parents… but it’s always a surprise.

You also have the OP’s (Open Pollinated) plants that you have no idea really who the pollen parent is.  In the above photo – this is one of those OP crosses. The pod parent is S. ‘Wilkerson’s Red’, and I have no idea who the pollen parent is.  You can see 1) that it’s in dire need of repotting and 2) the diversity from this one OP cross from one Sarracenia seed pod.  That red seedling is mos def’ one to watch out for.

Sarracenia courtii AF clone

 

Sarracenia courtii - anthocyanin free[Sarracenia courtii, anthocyanin free clone]

Ah, how I love these AF plants! I think this plant is a fun and goofy one. Here’s S. courtii (AF clone) stretching and sprawling out on this lazy weekend…

Sarracenia ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x ‘Adrian Slack’

 

Sarracenia 'Leah Wilkerson' x 'Adrian Slack'
[Sarracenia ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x ‘Adrian Slack’ – Spring 2011]

Happy Friday All! It’s been a long week, for sure.  So thankful for the weekend… I’m kickin’ this weekend off with a photo of this baby – S. ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x ‘Adrian Slack’.

This particular clone came from a cross created by Brooks Garcia, and seed grown by me.  These are the spring pitchers, and as each day passes, the nectar roll and upper pitcher portion of the pitcher seems to get lighter and lighter.  Looking forward to the way it will look in the summer and autumn. I hope that the fall pitchers will display that really strong contrast of upper white pitcher and the red band in the throat as it did last year.  Autumn is the time when the Sarracenia leucophylla influence is most prominent, so I hope for those same characteristics to be prominent then.

Here’s a couple photos of this seedling growing up…

Sarracenia 'Leah Wilkerson' x 'Adrian Slack'
[Sarracenia ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x ‘Adrian Slack’ – Spring 2010]

Sarracenia 'Leah Wilkerson' x 'Adrian Slack'
[Sarracenia ‘Leah Wilkerson’ x ‘Adrian Slack’ – Summer 2010]