Tales from the wacky side! A tale of a seedling gone awry..

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Another view

Good news: This is indeed a flower bud. I pried the petals apart slightly and saw a well formed stigma. I believe there are six petals also.

Bad news: The reason I pried open the bud was that one of the petal tips started to brown and is progressing down :*( So this may end without fully opening :*( The experience is quite intriguing though.

Andrew

Hello,
I just looked at seedling #2 and it is getting a good size pistil on it! The pistil is actually growing larger than the petals, so it is pushing on the top.
Anyway this brings me to a situation that I got myself into. When I collected pollen last year I was thinking that pollen lasted a long time at room temperature, so all of my pollen has been sitting in cups on a shelf in the basement for the last 8 months :*( I would like to pollinate Insta Lily® Bizzaro #2 but I don't believe any of my pollen will be viable. Does anybody have fertile asiatic pollen they could spare :*) ? I can send a SASE...

Thank you,
Andrew

Stigma is showing after a slight prod.

I guess I don't need pollen since the pistol is split :*(

Here is a better view of a good sized anther! Pollen perhaps on the way if the flower doesn't dry out...

Stay tuned to the Bizzaro® network,
Andrew

Update: I put a plastic sandwich bag over he cup to raise the humidity, and the bloom started opening up. The petals are not much to look at but all of the parts inside appear to be there. The style is split but reconnects at the base of an ovary! So I guess it would be nice to have some viable pollen around... I'll take pictures later today.

Andrew

Watch your fingers.....

Here it is showing off pollen, 5 months after germination! It has it's mothers orange pollen :*)

This message was edited Mar 6, 2007 7:41 PM

Hmmm. Reminds me of that musical "The Little Shop of Horrors". If it starts to belt out "Feed me!" I think I'd get out a blowtorch!

Don't you dare, Wanda! This is a LILY here! A mideval torch-baring lily-loving mob might come after you! LOL

Ya know, I never thought that little bugger, I mean Bizarro, would ever make it this far.
Hat's off to you, Andrew!

Torch bearing mob--are you talking a Frankensteinsh lily?

I thought you said your brain was mush? You seem to be quick at the uptake here! LOL

Don't forget to ask Neil Anderson about this :*) Who is he ?
Thanks Leftwood, I wasn't sure what to expect. It will be fun to see if the pollen works. I tried to pollinate the deformed ovary to see what happens.
Andrew

This message was edited Mar 9, 2007 8:02 PM

This message was edited Mar 9, 2007 9:53 PM

Definitely, Andrew. Neil Anderson is doing research with lilies, especially formosanum and longiflorum crosses, He is also involved with a several of other flowering genera, like Gaura. The MN Northstar Lily Society donated dollars to his lily research. I'll report back, of course.

With you permission, I will copy some of your pics to show him. I assume these are crosses of unknown asiatic lilies?

yes copy away, yes unknown.

Andrew

Hi Andrew. Got the info on Bizzaro from Dr. Neil Anderson. Actually, he couldn't tell me much. He has seen it happen before. He could not say if it was merely a climate induced "problem" or actual mutations. When I mentioned that both plants were from the same cross, it didn't spark any insight either. What did seem to interest him (somewhat) was that no stem was produced. But at any rate, he says, definitely some plants to keep an eye on.

I suppose the plants may just grow normally from here. It will be interesting to see anyway. Thanks for asking.

Andrew

No stem for my bunnies to eat? What a shame.