Seedling Variation in Titanopsis calcarea
One of the exciting, and yet sometimes frustrating, things about growing succulents from seed is you never really know what you are going to get. This is especially true when the pollination is "open," meaning you don't control the origin of the pollen. You know the identify of the female plant, because that is the plant from which you collect the fruit and hence the seed. However, often you don't know the plant which supplied the pollen that pollinated that female plant. That was the situation for seed I harvested, and sowed, from a Titanopsis calcarea plant in the autumn of 2011. The result was approximately 12 seedlings which were moved outside to one of my over wintering frames in the summer of 2012, and basically forgotten. This spring, I began cleaning out this over wintering frame and rediscovered the seedlings. Most were typical Titanopsis calcarea, they looked just like the female parent, but three were different. They were definitely T. calcarea, but they looked different. They displayed the variation that often occurs when you grow from seed.
Seedling #1 (above) is Titanopsis calcarea but compared to the parent plant, the tips of the leaves are more pronounced and the warts (the round markings on the leaf tips) are larger and lighter in color. For me, it's more attractive than the parent T. calcarea.
Seedling #2 also has the tips of the leaves more pronounced, but the warts are not as numerous as on seedling #1 and not as white. It too is quite different in appearance in comparison with the parent plant.
Seedling #3 is perhaps the most interesting. Again, the leaf tips are more pronounced, and the warts large and white, but now there is a noticeable red coloration surrounding the warts. The white warts, surrounded by red, on the ends of gray-green leaves produces a very different and attractive looking plant.
All three seedlings are still Titanopsis calcarea, but they are all slightly different from each other and different from their parent from which the seed came. That's the fun of growing from seed. Such noticeable variation doesn't always occur, but it occurs often enough to keep one's eyes watching those emerging seedlings very closely with the excitement of removing the wrapping of a new gift. As those seedlings grow you just never know what you are going to discover.
I have read about developing characteristics you like by more crossing. It would be interesting to see what could be produced.
ReplyDeleteHi Alain. The Japanese growers are really good at breeding for character enhancement. Some of the really wonderful astrophytum and haworthia cultivars have been bred by them. Of course, to find the best plants, you have to grow seedlings by the thousands, and that takes a lot of time and space. I have one haworthia hybrid that I produced that I think is very interesting. I'll have to do a blog on it soon.
ReplyDeleteHi Bob :)
ReplyDeleteSo true! Growing these plants from seed means a lot of surprises. Even if you don't get the variations worth cultivating in a seedlings bunch there still will be something different and something interesting. No species is completely uniform.
Your T. calcarea look great and their divergent appearance is truely something. Are they related to the smaller reddish seedlings you were writing about before? The ones you weren't sure they will survive? I read one of the localities offered by MG can get really dark. There's a photo of it in The Titanopsis Group if I'm not mistaken. But the red margins of yours might be even more attractive. Surely worth cultivating. :)
Hi Rika,
DeleteThanks for the interesting comments as always.
The third photo down IS the red seedling. It has held on to some red color at the leaf tips, but not on the remainder of the leaf. It's still a pretty plant. The other two seedlings shown were also part of the group with the red seedling. All three look relatively different than my larger Titanopsis calcareas. I'm enjoying watching them grow and hopefully develop into three nice adult plants. I have done a reasonable job holding back on planting seed. I do have several pots of lithops seedlings and two pots of Astrophytum (cactus) hybrid seedlings. I have so many large plants that they take up most of the space in my over-wintering frames. Of course you are the last person I should complain to about space limitations. :)
Very pretty! If what I have learned from my lithops is applicable the warmer or more intense colors are also a seasonal thing. Meaning if there's already a nice red color there like in case of these kids it may come out even more during the next summer, with lots of sun and little water. I'd be looking forward to this :)
DeleteLooks like it's time for you to think about making another overwintering frame ;) I sure would.
I remember visiting Kakteen-Haage nursery. They have 6 HUGE greenhouses full of plants. I wonder if they also sometimes think they don't have enough room XD
Fascinating, Bob! This makes perfect sense when you think of their native territory and its rocky desert soil. Seed will go into areas where the rock color and composition may be slightly different, more bumpy and white, or more red, or whatever. So the plant that's a little different may end up being the plant that survives in the new location....
ReplyDeleteYep, genetic diversity that occasionally produces a plant better adapted to its environment than others. Of course in ornamental horticulture, we are just looking for something pretty. Then we give it a cute name and try to sell as many as we can. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Bob! I think all seedlings are healthy and pretty to look! Mother-nature desided by her self how to color, or to form, or to make special everything on the Earth. I think it is fantastic and something like magic! I have about 15 different Titanopsis plants and 7 from it is calcarea but i cannot say that all are the same. All differ each other in something! One has more red colors, another has larger dots, third has greenish skin :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Aleksey. Yes, mother nature continually tries to create living things that have a better chance to survive in their various habitats. It would be interesting to grow many plants from seed and see all the variations, but most of us just don't have enough space.
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