S. alata 'veinless' Harrison Co, MS
Oct 17, 2020 15:04:43 GMT -5
kiwiearl, rudeko, and 5 more like this
Post by meizzwang on Oct 17, 2020 15:04:43 GMT -5
According to some seasoned Sarracenia experts, this is a very unique find and as far as I know, this "discovery" hasn't been otherwise documented by others. To clarify, there's a few veinless alatas in existence, but this form originating from Harrison Co, MS hasn't yet been documented by others.
I knew there were veinless alatas in Harrison Co, MS: I've seen them in the wild many years ago. Knowing that the genes were there somewhere, I crossed many different clones with each other and grew out a large seed batch with the hopes of finding that one veinless plant. Years later, there wasn't a single veinless plant.....I did get a seedling that started off veinless but then "a trap or two later" it produced veins, so that was a false positive. DAAAAAAAAAANG, DOOOOO!!!!! It's frustrating to think you've succeeded, only to find out that you didn't and you spent years trying! It's a lot of effort to grow all that out only to not find what you're looking for. This is the gamble you take when pheno hunting.
3 years ago, I decided to give it another try: I have a decent sized population of alatas from Harrison Co, MS in the collection, and given that not all of them consistently flower at the same time every year, I thought well maybe the ones carrying the veinless genes will flower this time around. It wasn't some sort of insane idea where you repeat the exact same experiment over and over again, expecting different results.... this next attempt was validly different!
Sure enough, it FINALLY WORKED!!!! This clone is for sure veinless AF, and I don't mean anthocyanin free, ladies and gentlemen! Every single trap it produces is veinless, so the trait is stable. Pics taken 10/1/20:
Well, technically speaking, all veinless plants still have veins, but the veins don't have anthocyanins in them:
Ignore that ornata to the left, that's for another day and another thread!
I knew there were veinless alatas in Harrison Co, MS: I've seen them in the wild many years ago. Knowing that the genes were there somewhere, I crossed many different clones with each other and grew out a large seed batch with the hopes of finding that one veinless plant. Years later, there wasn't a single veinless plant.....I did get a seedling that started off veinless but then "a trap or two later" it produced veins, so that was a false positive. DAAAAAAAAAANG, DOOOOO!!!!! It's frustrating to think you've succeeded, only to find out that you didn't and you spent years trying! It's a lot of effort to grow all that out only to not find what you're looking for. This is the gamble you take when pheno hunting.
3 years ago, I decided to give it another try: I have a decent sized population of alatas from Harrison Co, MS in the collection, and given that not all of them consistently flower at the same time every year, I thought well maybe the ones carrying the veinless genes will flower this time around. It wasn't some sort of insane idea where you repeat the exact same experiment over and over again, expecting different results.... this next attempt was validly different!
Sure enough, it FINALLY WORKED!!!! This clone is for sure veinless AF, and I don't mean anthocyanin free, ladies and gentlemen! Every single trap it produces is veinless, so the trait is stable. Pics taken 10/1/20:
Well, technically speaking, all veinless plants still have veins, but the veins don't have anthocyanins in them:
Ignore that ornata to the left, that's for another day and another thread!