Re: D. Binata x D. Capensis ? (again)

Barry Meyers-Rice (barry@as.arizona.edu)
Tue, 23 Nov 93 10:32:38 MST

>D. Binata is on its last few remaining flowers, and the D. Capensis
>has just started on three flowers.

I truly doubt you'll get anything for your efforts, but if you have the
energy, try! You may hit a gold mine. There are books in the library
listing chromosome #'s for various plants. These _Drosera_ may be listed.
If you want to try it, you described the right approach. If I were doing
the experiment, I would take pollen from the _D.capensis_ and put that on
the _D.binata_. This is because (at least my) _D.binata_ are infertile
to selfing, but like to cross. So if you accidentally get _D.binata_ pollen
on the _D.binata_ stigma, which is very likely, you won't get a selfing that
would confuse you later into thinking you got an effective cross. I suggest
you self some _D.binata_ flowers as a control, and try to cross others with
_D.capensis_ pollen.

Incidentally, just having the correct # of chromosomes is not quite enough
to insure a successful cross. "Black Mollies", little freshwater fish sold in
aquarium stores, have the same # of chromosomes as humans. Granted, I've never
personally tried to make the cross, but without experimental data I still feel
secure in thinking it wouldn't work. I just don't want to try it because
I don't think I could stand the rejection.

Bazza