Tag Archives: The Pitcher Plant Project

A Minor Detail

Posted on September 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

One of the things love about Sarracenia minors and their hybrids is that they have those very cool windows on the pitcher.  It’s a luring/trapping mechanism that the plant has that I mentioned about in an earlier come to the light post.  So a couple days ago, I noticed one of the plants with some cool thick windows in the back of its pitcher head.  It’s seed grown. The seeds came over as Sarracenia minor var. okefenokeensis x “Golden Red Jubilee” — as they grew, a lot of the seed looked like the pod parent plant, and a couple plants have characteristics of both parents.  Anyway, for this particular plant it would almost seem that  it may of been self pollinated seedling?  Eh… But who knows really. That’s just a minor detail.  When it will bloom, it may give us a better indication.  Anywhoo, for now, I just am enjoying the “Minor” detail on the back of this pitcher…

A minor detail[Some pretty cool windows on the back of this one..]

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Sarracenia + Light Painting

Posted on September 21, 2010 | 2 comments

So, this past weekend, I finally was able to get a chance to go out and do some night photography around San Francisco with my good friend and bro, Ron. (Thanks for kickin’ it, bro!)  We didn’t do much painting with lights, but we did get a chance to do a lot of great night time San Francisco city scape shots.  Just a couple shots below…

There’s something so poetically metaphorical about photographing  the beauty of light while everything else is darkness. While we were out shooting, I was reminded of a photo I took in 2009 of a grouping of my Sarracenias in the dark — with an added LED flashlight of course! Ah yes, Sarracenias are a bright spot for me, indeed.

09-19-10[Sept 19, 2010 – Pacific Heights from Alta Vista Park, San Francisco]

09-19-10
[Sept 19, 2010 – Painted Ladies in the Night, Alamo Square, San Francisco]

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And a photo of Sarracenias and random LED light painting/scribbles.
Hmm… I should do this more often with the Sarrs…

Sarracenia Light Painting[Sarracenia in the dark + LED lights randomly waved about, 2009]

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Hangin' out

Posted on September 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

As I was sorting out some seedlings a couple weeks back, I discovered one of the pitcher plants kinda … hangin’ out.  Well, that thing on it was hangin’ out.

This is a 2 1/2 year old seed grown clone of S. rubra ssp. wherryi “Chatom Giant” x “Sky watcher” (cross created by Brooks Garcia) – what impresses me with this plant is that — that thing. You know,  that long thing on the hood. Reminds me of an angler or something. 🙂  Now, not all the crosses from this grex look the same, (grex is just a geeky way of saying the plants that came from the same hybrid group):  some have elongated lids,  some are showing more color, some are  exhibiting more flared hoods from the S. “Sky watcher” parentage — but they all look interesting.  I hope that it gets some of that size from it’s rubra ssp. wherryi “Chatom Giant” as it matures.  Yeah. 😉

Sarracenia rubra ssp. wheryii x "Skywatcher"[Sarracenia rubra ssp. wherryi “Chatom Giant” x “Sky Watcher”]

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Perspective

Posted on September 19, 2010 | 1 comment

You ever wonder what it would be like to see Sarracenia from a bugs point of view?  Sarracenia catesbaei gives us some perspective…

perspective[Photo: A bugs point of view – inside Sarracenia catesbaei]

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Another Reptile Crossing!

Posted on September 18, 2010 | 3 comments

Happy weekend everyone!  Hope your weekends are going well!

Here’s a seedling that was created by Dr. Travis Wyman. It’s yet another Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ hybrid. This one is  another clone of S. ‘Reptilian Rose’ x leucophylla “pale”.  There’s a few other photos of its siblings from an earlier post – (Reptile Crossing).

What strikes me about this particular seedling is that the lips are still staying green, even in strong light.  When the light hits the nectar roll at just the right angle, it also can also seem to have a slight blueish-green hue to it.   I hope that the angular features of the parent plant get more amplified as it matures on this particular plant.  A green angular peristome (nectar roll) would mos’ def be pretty awesome!

S. 'Reptilian Rose' x leucophylla "pale"[Sarracenia ‘Reptilian Rose’ x leucophylla “pale” – cross created by Dr. Travis Wyman]

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Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis "black" x "Bug Bat"

Posted on September 17, 2010 | 3 comments

Happy Friday! Happy weekend indeed! YEAH! So here’s another intriguing cross I did last year.  Again, the seedling is putting up some pitchers that are showing some character now. I was out in the yard the other morning and found this particular plant pretty durn interesting as the morning sun was hitting the pitchers.  It’s exhibiting the characteristic color of it’s S. rubra ssp. gulfensis “black” parent and the very interesting Sarracenia “Bug Bat”.

(Ok – side note for all you Sarracenia-heads: there has been some question regarding the pod parent – there is speculation that it is not a pure S. rubra ssp. gulfensis and could have some S. alata mixed into it.  However, from what I am told – this particular S. rubra hails from the Yellow River area of  Florida, and it is doubtful that S. alatas grow that far east.)

Sarracenia rubra "black" x "Bug Bat"[Sarracenia rubra ssp. gulfensis “Black” x “Bug Bat”]

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Nerdy Pollen Storage

Posted on September 16, 2010 | 6 comments

Hope everyone found Brook Garcia’s pollination tutorial helpful! I sure did!  Again, everyone has their own methods and variations on how to pollinate. My suggestion is — do whatever works best for you! Don’t be afraid to try new things.  Anyway, so in 2009 when I wanted to store the pollen to create crosses with plants that don’t bloom at the same time, I figured I could store pollen in little containers that were available at a local craft store.  I didn’t really want to keep the pollen on a q-tip as I wanted to be able to spread that pollen around to more plants. Saving the pollen in the container would allow me a little bit more control. So being the uber plant nerd I am — I stored the pollen.  Actually, it was fellow grower and friend Jacob Farin who called me a Sarracenia nerd when he saw what I was doing. (OK, yes, I am a Sarracenia nerd. I admit. And I’m PROUD!! YEAH!!)

Yes, that is correct. I stored the pollen.

In little pollen containers.

In a pollen case.

In the pollen storage section of my fridge.

Next to the bacon. You MUST store it next to bacon. If you didn’t know, pollen storage next to bacon actually keeps it viable longer.

(Actually — the fridge keeps the pollen viable longer, not the bacon. But yes, eat bacon. It is good for you.)

You can’t really see it in the photo, but I did tag those cases so I knew what pollen was being used. Good record keeping is key, and organization is a good practice.

When it came time for the pod parent to open up and bloom –  I just simply took my uber-nerdy pollen case and my even more super uber-nerdy pollen brushes and pollinated away!   Here’s a photo from April 2009 of my “Sarracenia Pollen Palette”.

Sarracenia nerdy indeed![A Sarracenia Pollen Palette. It’s nerdy. But it works.]

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