Stylidium debiles

[SilverKiento]

Does S. debile self-pollinate. I mean.. it does not require pollen from another plant to get seed, right?

[kitkor]

Generally, most Stylidium species prevent self-pollination by postzygotic abortion. Rate of success depends on the species, though.

From Burbidge and James (1991): "...Recessive lethal equivalents act to discriminate against the products of self-pollination. These recessive lethal factors induce ovule or seed abortion after entry of the pollen tube into the micropyle of the ovule, and they are abundant in natural populations of most perennial Stylidium species. Patters of seed set suggest that an average Stylidium perennial plant may be heterozygous for up to about 20 seed-aborting lethal elements, and in populations of some species, seed-aborting lethal elements may occur at several hundred loci."

In other words, by selfing your plant, there are on average 20 locations where genes can match up to be recessive and lethal. The chances of getting all of those locations either non-lethal dominant or non-lethal heterozygous are staggeringly small.

My S. debile hasn't yet flowered but I'm hoping it will soon. Mine has produced tons of little plantlets from the root system. And if you got yours from the gentleman that sells them on eBay, our plants are most likely genetically identical!

If you don't have any luck with the one plant, you may want to try and find a second source of S. debile that isn't the same genetic identity as the one you already have.

Oh, and if you want seed of different species, I've contacted Wildseed Tasmania. They only have S. graminifolium right now but said they would place the other species on their seed collection list.

Kimseed International also lists several species on their seed list at relatively reasonable prices, but they're sold by the gram and some have minimums -- not sure you need 10 grams of S. affine seed! I've contacted them to check on the status of their supply and to confirm prices, but they haven't gotten back to me yet.

Cheers!
-Ryan


Ref: Burbidge, A.H. and James, S.H. (1991). Postzygotic seed abortion in the genetic system of Stylidium (Angiospermae: Stylidiaceae). Journal of Heredity, 82: 319-328.

[Dave Evans]

barryrice said:

That's called science! It's done in the land of carnivorous plants, too. How many times have we read any of the following:

Byblis plants catch birds
Nepenthes can capture small monkeys
Drosophyllum should only be grown one plant per pot
Darlingtonia was first collected by Brackenridge while he was being chased by Native Americans.

Anyone else have a favorite, oft-repeated fallacy?

Hi Barry,

Yeah, one Jan has mentioned several times, that Carnivorous Plants do not need to eat to survive. To me, this is complete bunk! Think about, why are these plants carnivorous and all their closest relatives which were not carnivorous, or not so good at it, dead? As in extinct.

Even plants which aren't carnivores need to be fed fertilizer to maintain health. Some species might be able to last quite a while before fading, but others like Drosera indica and D. sessilifolia need regular meals or they become small, yellow and weak followed closely by dead.

[Clint]

My opinion is that they consume to get an edge over the competition, not because they have to.

Of course, there's a big difference between surviving and thriving. If you want a plant to really thrive you're going to have to fertilize or feed/let it catch it's own food.

Just my 2 cents.

[wadave]

Hi Barry,

You write:

"my understanding is that some species have stalked mucous glands, and that these glands do have digestive enzymes".

I tend to think that nature doesn't do things by mistake so if it produces enzymes that digest, chances are high it's gunna absorb the resulting nutrients from digestion......

That's just my opinion.

Dave.