My ‘R. fortuniana’ is about to burst into bloom. I cut apart an opening bud on my dissecting microscope and found a few anthers (still immature) and many anther like edges on a large number of petaloids.
From my grad hours in palynology, I don’t recall ever hearing a discussion about this.
Has anyone ever used the material from these yellow edges of petaloids as pollen…successfully?
Or can you recommend any references?
Ann
I don’t know either. Anyone out there who can enlighten us? I always assumed that one could use it – I mean, pollen is pollen, and what other yellow powder would petaloids be producing? I have collected pollen from petaloids and used them in attempting to make hybrids, but I can’t say for sure if it works or not because I’ve only used it mixed with the more standardly produced pollen on the anthers. I suppose it could be tested fairly easily by making an indentical cross once with regular pollen and once with the pollen from petaloids. Maybe I will give it a whirl this summer.
Joseph.