re: Storing Drosera Pollen

From: Ivan Snyder (bioexp@juno.com)
Date: Fri Dec 15 2000 - 09:39:04 PST


Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 09:39:04 -0800
From: Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com>
To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com
Message-Id: <aabcdefg3620$foo@default>
Subject: re: Storing Drosera Pollen


>Anyone have any luck storing Drosera pollen? Ivan? Anyone? If so,
how?
And how long is it viable?
Thanks,
Matt

Hi Matt and all,
I have stored sundew pollen for only a few days within sealed vials in my
refrigerator. When sundew pollen dries it dies. I once put D. capensis
pollen in the freezer over night and used it in pollination and it proved
viable, so maybe it could be stored longer this way, I should study this
more. Dionaea, which I think of as a sort of sundew, has much larger
pollen grains than most sundews. Freezing kills Dionaea pollen, maybe by
internal freeze fracturing. I have only stored Dionaea pollen in the
refrigerator for a few days also. Things dry in the refrigerator too,
this is why it must be kept in a sealed container with high humidity.
During longer periods mold will grow, and this will also destroy the
pollen. To collect the pollen I use needle tip forceps to grasp the
stamen filament and pluck off the whole stamen. Then later after storage
I again pick up the stamen by the filament to dab the pollen onto
stigmas.
Ivan Snyder
Hermosa Beach
California



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