Galanthus X Leucojum

[Wim Snoeijer]

Very interesting to read about the possibility of crossbreeding Galanthus with Leucojum.

I tried 8 flowers of Galanthus 'White Dream' in February 2010, pollinated with Leucojum vernum. The large pot with the Galanthus was in the greenhouse and there were no other snowdrops. From the 8 flowers I removed the anthers while the flower was still in bud and when I thought the stigma was ready to recieve the pollen I did so with fresh pollen from the Leucojum. Having no experience with crossbreeding Galanthus I pollinated quite a bit of the style aswell, so not only the stigma.

All the other flowers from that pot were removed also to avoid pollination.

6 ovaries quickly shriveled but 2 ovaries started to grow. After a couple of weeks 1 shriveled aswell but the last one kept on growing untill it was about 1 cm across. Then this last one turned yellow and fell of the stalk and on opening the ovary nothing was there.

So what next? Perhaps I should try a different seed plant and/or try Leucojum vernum from a different source?

In September, however, I was told that when you want to crossbreed two plants of which is believed they are hardly related, to cut off the style and pollinate then, so directly above the ovary. The reason is, so I was told, that the style can be quite a obstruction for the pollen to pass. It also should be possible to cut off the stigma from the style, cut off the style and replace the stigma and when the stigma continue to be healthy to pollinate the next day. Perhaps an idea for someone with a patient mind and hand.

On the subject Gerard Oud wrote in the previous topic: "The structure of the Leucojumpollen are not the same as the structure of the Galanthuspollen it just doesn't fit."

That is behond my knowledge so I had to look for information, quite interesting though. In the pubication by Dahlgren, Clifford & Yeo (1985) The Families of the Monocotyledons, the authors refer to sulcate pollen grains for both Galanthus and Leucojum (page 205). The authors also refer to the whole family Amaryllidaceae (page 199) as "The pollen grains are sulcate in most genera, but bisulcate in the tribe Amaryllicadeae..."

Any more information about this would be most welcome. Thank you.

In the attachement (I hope) a picture of Galanthus 'White Dream'

Best wishes,
Wim

[Maggi Young]

Welcome to the Forum, Wim, a pleasure to have you join us and share your experiences with this hybridisation attempt.

[emma T]

Thats very interesting. Maybe i will try Galanthus pollen on Leucojum vernum and i will try and remove the style on a plant or too.

[Chad]

Crossing two genera with different chromosome complements will always be a challenge. Even if possible the success rate is likely to be one in several thousand attempted crosses.  Galanthus are usually 2n=24 and Leucojum [sensu stricto] 2n=22

There is a theoretical ‘other way’.  If both species can be maintained in cell culture it may be possible to 'fuse' cells without going through the flower phase at all.  The resultant cell would already be tetraploid, but would need to be recognised amongst all the dividing cells of each species in the culture and then grown on [or lots and lots grown on and selection happening later].

I'm told [this wasn't my idea!] it is called   protoplast fusion.

How well established is tissue culture for these genera?

Chad.

[Diane Whitehead]

Crossing two genera with different chromosome complements will always be a challenge. Even if possible the success rate is likely to be one in several thousand attempted crosses.

Chad.

From "We Have No Bananas" by Mike Peed in The New Yorker Jan 10/11
Commercial bananas are being wiped out by disease, and are sterile, so can't be hybridized to develop resistant ones.  However, someone is trying.

"Aguilar begins his work by planting 20,000 plants of a single variety.... workers manually dust the flowers with pollen from a plant that has .... disease resistance. ......Every Monday, local women peel a hundred thousand bananas.  Two days later .... the women smash them on a sieve ... and retrieve any seeds. ........On average Aguilar recovers one seed from every ten thousand bananas."

So - you need a huge greenhouse full of plants and willing workers.  Maybe a beehive?

[TheOnionMan]

Diane, would you have a link to the We Have No Bananas article, sounds interesting.

[Diane Whitehead]

The New Yorker website posts an abstract of the article:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/10/110110fa_fact_peed

Your public library will have a copy if you want to read the whole thing.

Googling gives lots of comments about the article.  Here is one:

http://thenewyorkerandme.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-10-2011-issue.html

[Chad]

You need a huge greenhouse full of plants and willing workers.  Maybe a beehive?

And very well trained bees.

One of the difficulties is that with these odds however careful you are you are more likely to get seed from inadvertent 'selfing' than from the desired cross.

Chad.

[Diane Whitehead]

This is why male-sterile varieities are so useful in large-scale breeding -
there is no need for fiddly removal of stamens, and any seeds produced by
the male-sterile plants will be the result of pollination by the second plant
in the greenhouse and will produce hybrids.

Does anyone know of any snowdrops or snowflakes that have atrophied
stamens?

[Martin Baxendale]

This is why male-sterile varieities are so useful in large-scale breeding -
there is no need for fiddly removal of stamens, and any seeds produced by
the male-sterile plants will be the result of pollination by the second plant
in the greenhouse and will produce hybrids.

Does anyone know of any snowdrops or snowflakes that have atrophied
stamens?

Poculiform Galanthus elwesii in my experience. Not managed to get so much as a grain of pollen from any for breeding purposes yet. 

[Ru]

Cytoplasmic male sterility, CMS, it is possible to induce antibiotics (Erythromycin, Synthomycinum), or Ethidium bromide. Except CMS, at, a considerable quantity of the processed seeds, dwarfs and variegated forms will be received. Concentration I can not remember