Cross Pollination Of Gymnocalycium's

*Barracuda_52* · Post by ***Barracuda_52*** » Sun May 03, 2009 8:54 pm

Ok stupid questions as always, can you cross pollinate G. Erinaceum to G. Dopianu? I took the pollin from 2 flowers of the G. Erinaceum and tried pollinating 2 flowers on the G. Dopianu, now the flowers on the G. Dopianu dried up and i was left with this..

Now see how the other flowers and there stem dried up but these 2 didnt. Stupid question, is that where the seeds will be or am i just stupid?

This is my first time pollinating cacti

and have never gotting seed from cacti befour..

Loph · Post by **Loph** » Tue May 05, 2009 12:59 pm

they could be crossed or selfed. gymnos tend to hybridize fairly easily, at least many species do. of all the ones i keep, maybe 10 species, they all seem to willingly set fruits from each others pollen. the few i have grown up do seem to be hybrids and not selfed.

Moonbeam · Post by **Moonbeam** » Thu May 07, 2009 1:11 am

I think the fruit grows on top of what's left of the stem...where the flower was/is.

Loph · Post by **Loph** » Fri May 08, 2009 4:29 am

yes, the green thing is the fruit where the seeds are. wait til it dries before picking.

*Barracuda_52* · Post by ***Barracuda_52*** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 7:15 am

Thanks everyone..

Loph, how long does it take for those fruits to dry up, they have been the same plump green color since i posted this topic, i have a total of three of them on this cactus, one which did this after it flowerd 2 weeks past the others and i also pollinated that one with another cactus.

I have a few other diffrent cactus that have done the same thing flower buds dried up and left a swollen stem do i wait on those as well to dry up to? I will snap some pics of those as soon as i get the chance and post um up just in case.
Thanks.....

Loph · Post by **Loph** » Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:23 am

i seem to forget most. i remember some G. anistisii, or however its spelled, took about 5 weeks.

*Barracuda_52* · Post by ***Barracuda_52*** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 3:23 pm

Ok update i had gottin 2 fruits off G. Dopianu so far theres one fruit left to ripen and seeds were sown on 6/22/09 only 2 days ago and WOOT

i already have germination. Will snap pics later on today and get um posted.

Cant wait to see how these hybrids look when older..

iann · Post by **iann** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 7:16 pm

G. dopianu is not a species, it is a typo. The correct name is G. andreae var doppianum. I'm pretty sure even that name has not been formally described but it is at least the name used when the plant was introduced.

G. andreae and G. erinaceum are relatively closely related in Gymno terms, so a hybrid isn't out of the question. My money is on self-fertilisation though, fairly common in Gymnos. Self-fertilised seedlings are usually very uniform and similar to the seed parent.