A friend gave me a crinum lily a few years ago, which i planted in a bigger pot. For the first year it flowered once but i did not see it in person. There was also an episode when it was fully defoliated by a lily caterpillar moth, eating all the leaves and leaf sheaths, leaving only the base trunk and the bulb. It didn't seem to be bothered as it produced more robust and healthier leaves than before. Afterwards it produced a scape with a few flowers. The good thing about this lily is the ability to produce more flowerings per year.
It even has a sweet scent discernible when you are near it. Ours is planted near the terrace so a whif of that scent goes with the wind for some moments. The flowers though do not bloom at the same time, and droop always. I wonder if the flowers are so heavy while the neck are soft to carry them upright. Moreover, the flowers last only for one day.
I was so curious once that i opened a still close bud like above to see the conditions of the pollen inside.
Curiosity got into me the past week so i pollinated it with some hippeastrum pollens, because a few hippeastrum are simultaneously blooming with it. I checked after a few days and i guess it did not succeed. Intergeneric breeding might not be possible with it, or there are factors which hindered the fertilization. Those however are very difficult to answer with just a few pollinations i did, which i also did not vary any conditions as maturity of pollen and stigma, conditions of the day, etc.
However, i searched the net and nothing of the sort has been done yet. But there was a dissertation in Australia showing the factors that impede fertilization, once before and once after. However the actual study succeding fertilization of crinum with hippeastrum is still not available. With that, i will not do it again next time. Just let them BE!
Looks like a neat plant! How many individuals do you have? I have a small species of Crinum here, which happens to be a native of the Philippines, Crinum gracile.
ReplyDeleteUy thanks much Wally. Nahihiya ako sayo at binasa mo blogpost ko, kasi ndi ako magaling magsulat. Everything i post are extemporaneous, spur of the moments posts depending on what photos i have, hehehe.
DeleteThis crinum is from Edward Agdepa, i also have a Crinum zeylanicum. Both are eaten fully by a moth every now and then, but return to normal again. I don't know C. gracile, will search how it looks like. Thanks for your visit.