Podophyllum

[Tony Willis]

John a good number of mine are coming up with the seed coats on even though I have a good covering of grit on the pots that they have to push through.

I am ignoring it for the moment and expect they will eventually split of.

[johnw]

John a good number of mine are coming up with the seed coats on even though I have a good covering of grit on the pots that they have to push through.

I am ignoring it for the moment and expect they will eventually split of.

Tony - They seem to be sluffing off quite nicely on their own here.  The two vars. of P. aurantiocaule are still underground, Philip MacD. says it is the latest of them all.  True?

johnw

[Kristl Walek]

Just to add to general information on the genus.

P. hexandrum 2008 stock.
Dry stored in freezer.

Retested winter of 2009-2010.

10 out of 10.

[Robin Callens]

John,

Podophyllum aurantiocaule seeds are indeed the last to germinate. Also the plants of this species are the last to emerge, end of april-beginning of may.

[johnw]

John,

Podophyllum aurantiocaule seeds are indeed the last to germinate. Also the plants of this species are the last to emerge, end of april-beginning of may.

Robin  - Indeed with a bit of warmth the aurantiocaules are emerging. 23c here today, a record breaker.

One forumist reported by PM that she had Podophyllum seeds sprout with true round leaves. I was puzzled. All mine came up with the normal seed leaves, which by the way have increased in size to about 5 times their original size 3 or more weeks ago.  A few days ago I was looking at a pot of P. pleianthum and found a newly sprouted tiny seedling  with a true leaf, also a tiny stub of a root as you would expect.  It can only by from seed of last year as none of my more exotic podos set any seed until last autumn.  Is this very unusual?   And why do plants always seem to break the rules?

johnw

[Tony Willis]

John,

Podophyllum aurantiocaule seeds are indeed the last to germinate. Also the plants of this species are the last to emerge, end of april-beginning of may.

Robin  - Indeed with a bit of warmth the aurantiocaules are emerging. 23c here today, a record breaker.

One forumist reported by PM that she had Podophyllum seeds sprout with true round leaves. I was puzzled. All mine came up with the normal seed leaves, which by the way have increased in size to about 5 times their original size 3 or more weeks ago.  A few days ago I was looking at a pot of P. pleianthum and found a newly sprouted tiny seedling  with a true leaf, also a tiny stub of a root as you would expect.  It can only by from seed of last year as none of my more exotic podos set any seed until last autumn.  Is this very unusual?   And why do plants always seem to break the rules?

johnw

John  I have experienced this in the past and indeed have two seedlings producing a leaf without the cotyledons being evident.

What is happening with me is that the seeds have put down a root and as they have tried to push up the seed with the cotyledon inside the seed coat through the gravel it has rotted of. If this was a normal dicot the growing point would have rotted as well and we would say the seedling had damped of. As this is not a normal dicot the growing point is at soil level and if the rot does not proceed far down the young leaf stalk then the true leaf appears out of the base as normal. Hence the first sign of the plant above ground is a true leaf.  This has only occured as far as I can see on the small seeded plants and they are too small for me to illutrate with a phtograph.

[johnw]

Tony - Thanks for the response.   The one here with a true leaf is so minute I can't photograph it well either - photo 1.  

It will be interesting to see if  the other ones develop a true leaf the first year.  It is quite remarkable how large the cotyledons have become in a month, I've just done a few measurements against some recent sprouters and they are now 6 times larger that when the seed coat was first sluffed off and then expanded. Photo 2 pleianthum seedlings just unfurled, centre seedling, Photo 3 pleianthum 1 month old.

johnw -  +20c here and sunny

[Kristl Walek]

The south-east North American woodlander, Diphylleia cymosa is of course a Podophyllum relative. It's my first time growing this from seed---and have many hundred germinated at the moment. I am trying to figure out how to pot it up (which depends on its growth habit). Can someone tell me whether it proceeds beyond the first leaf in its first year or whether I should treat it like podophyllum in this regard?

Thank You.

[Robin Callens]

Kristl,

Diphylleia cymosa holds its cotyledon the first year, I treat it like Podophyllum.

Robin

[Kristl Walek]

Thank you, Robin. When I didn't have an answer in the beginning, I followed my instinct (and potted them like Podophyllums), so I am happy to have this confirmed.

[johnw]

My talented photographer / neighbour Mike (aka musapix) came by last May and shot our Podophyllum pleianthums.  In the rear left you can see our old carriage house and the tremendous height of our plants.  We will be discarding all patio umbrellas this year as the Podos are servicing the entire yard.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musapix/3525385706/

By the way, this year's newly sprouted seedlings are putting up true leaves, about 7-8 weeks after first sprouting.

johnw

[prussia]

Well, just wanted to share some experience. I bet many of you, Podo people, have done that to Podos seeds. But this is my first time of experimenting with Podos seeds. 

Seeds of P.pleianthum and  P.hexandrum came from Kristi (with instructions) but being me ( love to play with different germinating techniques ) I didn't follow those instruction to a dot. (Please forgive me,  Kristi!)

So here what I have done:

February 25

I scarified 2 seeds of P. pleianthum with a sand paper and store them with the rest in a fridge in paper towel.

On March 6th

I decided to check on seeds and those two seeds, that were scarified, germinated.

Just wanted to share.