Jankaea heldreichii

[Jan Jeddeloh]

So has anyone succeeded in growing jankea?  I'm in the weird position of having scads of it in tissue culture but haven't been able to transition it to the real world.  The fussy little things curl up their toes and die.  I can't claim credit for getting it into tissue culture.  Esther Benedict of Benedict Nursery in Indiana started from seed, got a clean culture and managed to propagate it.  I met her at the NARGS annual meeting in 2015 and she gave me a baby food jar of jankea.  A friend and I have been working with lilies and trillium in tissue culture so we just added jankea to the mix.  Esther has also had trouble getting it out of culture.  I believe her only successes have been with placing it directly on tufa and covering it with moist burlap but I know she has a pretty high failure rate too. 

I have exactly one piece of tufa (hard to get around here) and today put some tiny little pieces onto it by tucking it into the moss.  I wonder if one of the problems we've had with putting it into soil is that it likes a limey soil. Maybe we should mix in some extra lime?  If so how much do you think?  I also put some on peat pellets under lights and some into a soil mix.  And one pot in "Sumi Soil" little pellets of expanded clay.  So what other suggestions do folks have?  I'm happy to entertain even the most outlandish ideas.  I will say they grow great in test tubes inside up lights which isn't where you think and alpine ought to grow. 

I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow.

Jan

[sokol]

I think tufa is fine as the handling is easy but other rocks are also possible. Naturally the grow over or better in limestone crevices. I add some pictures from Mt. Olympos to show their natural habitat but they are not of best quality. Sometimes they grow in pure moss without having the roots between the limestone.

I would suggest to plant them out not too early. I grow them vertically and north faced between blocks of tufa and those that get the most rain are doing better than the others in the rain shadow of a big Thuja.

[ian mcdonald]

I managed to get a few seed but they did not germinate. The seed were planted in a pot and also on tufa.

[Maggi Young]

Jankaea heldreichii (Boiss.) Boiss.

http://botany.cz/cs/jankaea-heldreichii/

[Jan Jeddeloh]

Here's a picture of the jankea in its tissue culture home (I hope.  I've been having trouble posting pictures).  You can see what I mean by lots but that doesn't do me a lot of good if we can't get them out of culture.  I took this tub to my local NARGS chapter meeting on Tuesday and it went home with our master asexual propagator.  Maybe she can figure out a way to root the little critters.  I think part of my problem is that they don't have much in the way of roots.  Possibly there is something in my media that is good for multiplying them but not so good for developing roots.



Jan

[Great Moravian]

Here's a picture of the jankea in its tissue culture home (I hope.  I've been having trouble posting pictures).  You can see what I mean by lots but that doesn't do me a lot of good if we can't get them out of culture.  I took this tub to my local NARGS chapter meeting on Tuesday and it went home with our master asexual propagator.  Maybe she can figure out a way to root the little critters.  I think part of my problem is that they don't have much in the way of roots.  Possibly there is something in my media that is good for multiplying them but not so good for developing roots.

Jan

Remove cytokinins, restrict sugar, add kalium phosphate. This worked for potatoe tissue culture.
Try it for Jankaea heldreichii.

[Tony Willis]

This is my attempt to grow them on tufa. I drilled holes and inserted the tiny plants back filling the holes with the dust from the drilling.

The tufa is stood on a tray of sand which I keep wet. I also water over the top on dry days.

The one thing I have found with these plants is they need good air circulation. If it is damp and stagnant they rot.

This is their second year .

There was a magnificent clump on Olympus for many years near Prioni which sat on a ledge in pure moss. It was 40 cms by 15 cms in size. It disappeared when they improved the path.

[Alex]

That's nice, Tony! Where did you get all those lovely little Jankaea plants?

Alex

[Tony Willis]

That's nice, Tony! Where did you get all those lovely little Jankaea plants?

Alex

I got them from a friend (no longer with us) who had a one time success with seed some years ago and they were gradually fading away and so this was a last resort to keep them going which seems to be working.

[Alex]

Ah, right. Good luck with them, I know that setup has given good results for many people.

Alex

[Maggi Young]

I've just seen  this  photo on Facebook from Vangelis Papiomytoglou of  Jankaea heldreichii in habitat on Mt. Olympus - this is the best pic of a HUGE plant of this that I can remember seeing - spectacular!

[Leucogenes]

What a stunning shot. Thank you for showing. I had missed the possibility to buy some young plants last year unfortunately.  I will definitely make up for it. I will order the same for my friend Gerd Stopp. Hopefully he has some more ... you do not get anywhere.

[shelagh]

We grew the leaves for several years  after buying it from Ger (not sure I can spell the rest)  at a SRGC Discussion weekend at Pitlochry I think.  Eventually Brian gave up, it didn't die but it didn't thrive either.  Good luck to anyone trying it.

[Gabriela]

Glorious specimen.
Some species are best to be enjoyed in the wild or in pictures, whichever comes first

[Leucogenes]

Glorious specimen.
Some species are best to be enjoyed in the wild or in pictures, whichever comes first



You are absolutely right ... in nature it always looks the best. And as perfect as Mother Nature we can not place the plants at all. Especially the foliage is the madness ... or?