Monday, July 31, 2006

Flowering Lophophora williamsii v. jourdaniana

According to Habermann’s description Lophophora williamsii v. jourdaniana differs from other L. williamsii varieties by having rose-violet perianth, pistil and filaments as well as having small persistent spines on young areoles.

Flowering Lophophora williamsii v. jourdaniana
Flowering Lophophora williamsii v. jourdaniana

One of my Lophophora williamsii v. jourdaniana plants flowered today, beautifully illustrating the description (even some spines can be seen faintly in the photos ;-)

Lophophora williamsii v. jourdaniana flower
Lophophora williamsii v. jourdaniana flower

Like L. williamsii v. williamsii the jourdaniana variety has thigmotropic stamens, i.e. stamens that when touched fold in around pollinating insects or the style. I wonder if this mechanism is used for actively depositing pollen on pollinators or for avoiding self-pollination (or both)?

Lophophora williamsii v. jourdaniana flower
L. williamsii v. jourdaniana – thigmotropic stamens

The flowering of this plant coincided with the flowering of my grafted Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Tx). I decided not to outcross the plants but instead self-pollinate both of them; first of all to keep my SB 854’s “clean”, but also because I want to test the alleged self-incompatibility of the jourdaniana variety.

This Lophophora williamsii v. jourdaniana plant also flowered last year – it was then outcrossed with pollen from a regular L. williamsii and yielded 2 seeds.

4 comments:

  1. Hello there! I have came across your page several times and must compliment you on your success in grow the Peyote. I am a grower myself and have just successfully germinated my first batch of seeds from self-fertilising the parent plant. There are pictures of my cactus and seedling on my blog as well but I don't have a blog dedicated to it. Drop by when you have time and good luck with your growing.

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  2. Hi there,

    just wanted to say, great stuff as usual, including your photos :)

    Drop by my blog some time.

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  3. Can anyone tell me how to pollinate my cacti? I have three that are over 20 years old and they have never reproduced. They are flowering as I type.

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  4. Usually I just use a cotton swab for pollinating my plants (see for example this post) – alternatively you can use a soft-haired, small brush.

    Sometimes I’ve also removed a bunch of stamens using a pair of tweezers and brushed the anthers of the removed stamens directly against the stigma of the receiving flower. This method works fine but is a bit harsh on the flowers so I prefer using a q-tip and enjoy the flowers for a few days more ;-) Removing stamens can be handy if your plants are not flowering at the same time, though. Just store the harvested pollen in the fridge until another plant blooms.

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