Hibiscus: Help: Insects Eating My Hardy Hibiscus Seeds, 1 by Michael_Ronayne

Michael_Ronayne wrote:
I had previously commented on the smaller size of wild Hibiscus moscheutos seeds. Attached is a photograph comparing Hibiscus seed sizes of three Hibiscus cultivars, two are species and one is a hybrid. From left to right the seeds in the photograph are the following:

1. Hibiscus moscheutos (Wild seed from New Jersey)
2. Hibiscus x Lord Baltimore
3. Hibiscus coccineus (Red Texas Star)

I tried to select representative seed sizes for all three examples. The picture is actually a family portrait because Lord Baltimore is a hybrid of H. moscheutos, H. coccineus and several other Hibiscus species, some of which are no longer considered species. The plant patent for Lady Baltimore, the pod progeny of Lord Baltimore, provides some documentation for the ancestry of Lord Baltimore and documents the fact that it is “almost” pod sterile with a pollination success rate of 1/250.

http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=KPY8AAAAEBAJ

The hybridization was conducted over a period of years using as seed parent "Lord Baltimore," which first bloomed in 1955. "Lord Baltimore" is itself a near-sterile hybrid, its ancestry including Hibiscus militaris, Hibiscus coccineus, Hibiscus moscheutos, and Hibiscus palustris. Because of the shy seeding habit of "Lord Baltimore" (a flower-to-seedpod ratio of approximately 250 to 1), no attempt was made to keep the crosses exclusive. As far as possible, pollen was manually delivered from selected pink-flowered hibiscus plants; but there was no exclusion of the serendipitous bee. Selections were continuously made from the seedlings so derived.

My single seed pod from Lord Baltimore was the result of manual pollination with it own pollen after many failed attempts. I was incurably lucky to obtain the pod which was not compromised by Althaeus hibisci because it was so late in the season. Using Blomma’s protocol I plan to start artificial germination in a few weeks once I get all my Hibiscus species seeds started.

For seed sizes compare these two calibrated USDA photographs:
Hibiscus moscheutos
http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=himo_004_ahp....
Hibiscus coccineus
http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=hico2_002_ahp...

Almost all hardy Hibiscus cultivates have the seed sizes of H. Coccineus, not H. moscheutos. It would be interesting to do a side by side calibration of the seeds for all North American Hibiscus species.


Mike
p.s. I apologize for the poor quality of my photograph; I am working on a new lens and lighting system for my camera.


This message was edited Nov 21, 2009 10:59 AM