Post by meizzwang on Apr 8, 2016 12:41:27 GMT -5
A lot of the breeding going on these days focuses on creating that biggest, fattest, juiciest, most colorful pitcher plant, and good lord, our breeders have recently produce a bunch of cutting edge cultivars! Once you get that amazing plant, in many cases, it's a unique individual and there's nothing else like it in the world. Take Saurus as an example, have you ever seen something so gigantic with that color? Much of these complex hybrids are a "once in a lifetime" deal: try to remake the cross and you won't ever get anything that looks exactly the same.
With pure species, sometimes you can get lucky and cross 2 different ornatas, for example, and then back cross it to a third ornata to get an "improved" ornata:the goal is to get something more shapely, faster growing, easier to keep alive, darker, with more intense veining, etc. I suspect the same can be said about breeding for more white in leucophylla var. alba, and much work is being done to improve this variant.
On the other hand, is it possible to take a complex hybrid, do some sort of outcross or back cross, and create an even better version of your previous hybrid? For the longest time, I thought the answer was NO. Over and over and over again, experiments in the past failed to produce an "improved" version of a complex hybrid. On the plus side, sometimes these crosses unexpectedly creates a new, unique cultivar.
Long story short, out of many random crosses, back crosses, and just dumb luck, I was able to create a plant that looks almost exactly the same as S. Elaine Wang (here's a pic of Elaine Wang for reference):
So far, the new clone seems to be more vigorous, more productive pitcher-wise, brigher colored, more shapely with an almost bulbous feature, and taller than Elaine Wang. The exact genetics and cross is a trade secret and will be kept private to prevent "imposter" clones from being produced. All that aside, I encourage everyone to take their beloved cultivar and see if they can improve it by crossing it with other species, hybrids, or doing back crosses! My gut says there's more than 1 pathway to producing "improved" complex hybrids.
Here's S. 'Ellie Wang', which looks like an improved Elaine Wang! Several other breeders have created outstanding white topped, red bodied plants (which I'd love to own someday, LOL), but I believe no other red bodied/white topped plant is as refined as S. Ellie Wang! Photos taken 4/7/16:
This plant is still relatively small, and it hasn't yet bloomed, so stay tuned!
With pure species, sometimes you can get lucky and cross 2 different ornatas, for example, and then back cross it to a third ornata to get an "improved" ornata:the goal is to get something more shapely, faster growing, easier to keep alive, darker, with more intense veining, etc. I suspect the same can be said about breeding for more white in leucophylla var. alba, and much work is being done to improve this variant.
On the other hand, is it possible to take a complex hybrid, do some sort of outcross or back cross, and create an even better version of your previous hybrid? For the longest time, I thought the answer was NO. Over and over and over again, experiments in the past failed to produce an "improved" version of a complex hybrid. On the plus side, sometimes these crosses unexpectedly creates a new, unique cultivar.
Long story short, out of many random crosses, back crosses, and just dumb luck, I was able to create a plant that looks almost exactly the same as S. Elaine Wang (here's a pic of Elaine Wang for reference):
So far, the new clone seems to be more vigorous, more productive pitcher-wise, brigher colored, more shapely with an almost bulbous feature, and taller than Elaine Wang. The exact genetics and cross is a trade secret and will be kept private to prevent "imposter" clones from being produced. All that aside, I encourage everyone to take their beloved cultivar and see if they can improve it by crossing it with other species, hybrids, or doing back crosses! My gut says there's more than 1 pathway to producing "improved" complex hybrids.
Here's S. 'Ellie Wang', which looks like an improved Elaine Wang! Several other breeders have created outstanding white topped, red bodied plants (which I'd love to own someday, LOL), but I believe no other red bodied/white topped plant is as refined as S. Ellie Wang! Photos taken 4/7/16:
This plant is still relatively small, and it hasn't yet bloomed, so stay tuned!