Hi all
Anyone know if Othonna's are self fertile, I have O herrei flowering at the moment and wondered if it might produce viable seed.
This is a plant i grew from seed sown in 2012, this individual plant grew really fast and large, the other seedlings are still much smaller, it has been flowering for 2 years .
Here is othonna cyclophylla, the first time I saw one of these in a collection I thought it was dead & going mouldy, I have two of these & neither one has flowered yet, anyone flowered it and at what size.
Last edited by Tina on Thu Dec 29, 2016 5:07 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Tina
varied collection of succulents and cacti but I especially like Euphorbia's, Ariocarpus and variegated agaves.
Tina wrote:Is it me or a glitch as when I add images there is no function to ' put inline' , the files are sort of uploading- status is green but then there is no image,
Worked OK for me two days ago
Sorry cannot help with the main question
Possibly a problem, all tinys plctures are out of focus unusually. There are a lot of huge habitat collected Othonnas including 'the mouldy' one being flogged on ebay by our friend in Hungary at the moment.
I do not think that I have ever seen seed set spontaneously on any of my othonnas and suspect that they are not self-fertile. But even when I have tried to inter-pollinate two clones, seed set has been very poor for me. I am not sure of the reason but maybe it is because of the low temperatures here in mid-winter. Some other people seem to set seed OK. When harvesting seed, you have to separate the sterile ones with thin bases from the fertile ones which have plump bases - they all have their somewhat feathery awns on top.
Your vigorous O. herrei does not look quite right and I wonder if it is a hybrid? You are normally lucky to get 1cm growth per season on this one. Your plant with the "mouldy" tomentose stems is actually O. cremnophylla which is my favourite in the genus but also painfully slow. Mine started to flower when it was about 15cm tall. Specks was one of the first people to introduce this species into Europe and he distributed it under the name of O. cyclophylla which is a different species. O. cremnophylla is quite a recent name that was published by Ernst van Jaarsveld for the "mouldy" species which only occurs on the Rosyntjieberg in the Richtersveld.
Are you trying to starve your plants Tina in those tiny bonsai pots? Othonnas when in leaf need a lot of water but can easily be damaged by overwatering in the autumn as they start to leaf up. The leaves go somewhat limp indicating that water is needed.
I've had the same results as Terry. Even with two plants I don't get seed, so I can't claim that my failure is because they aren't self-fertile. I've actually been told that they are self-fertile, at least some species, but that's from a grower in California.
iann wrote:I've had the same results as Terry. Even with two plants I don't get seed, so I can't claim that my failure is because they aren't self-fertile. I've actually been told that they are self-fertile, at least some species, but that's from a grower in California.
Same experience, based on just one species. I have not (yet) managed to get seeds from Othonna clavifolia from three clones. They flower well enough, though.
I've never had any self-set seed on any of my succulent Compositae, for what it's worth.
Tyelcodons (a different kettle of fish, of course) have occasionally resulted in volunteer seedlings, although whether this is due to self fertility, or crossing, I am not so sure.
separate the sterile ones with thin bases from the fertile ones which have plump bases
I haven't found any with plump bases so all infertile, can you grow this from cuttings.
One was from a friend who did buy at Specks so that might explain the id and thanks for the correction, I find these grow ok as long as they are in a sunny spot for winter growth I have had them 3 or 4 years now, I potted them in the bonsai pots as they have large holes for drainage & had a vague idea of taking them to show at the National. I suppose the pots are a bit small I will have to look for some more pretty pots. Originally my two plants were single heads but I cut them with a scalpel & now they are multi headed. How large do they need to be to be classed as a mature plant ?.
Tina
varied collection of succulents and cacti but I especially like Euphorbia's, Ariocarpus and variegated agaves.
My oldest O. cremnophylla is about 20cm tall with four branches and has been with me for something like 15 years. It probably would be suitable for showing apart from the fact that there are very few shows during the time it is in growth. I also achieved a similar size with O. herrei but that had more branches until it passed on to that great herbarium in the sky. I seem to remember that I was surprised by a rather small O. armiana with no leaves and one flower winning its class at the National last year, but what do I know about show judging. Because most of these are really slow-growing I have not had any stem cutting material to try to root. However I have taken root tuber cuttings from some of the geophytic othonnas and these have established OK and produced new growth shoots from the thickened roots.
I have just had some O. armiana seeds from Steve Hammer that were plucked straight off the plants and even from sunny southern California there were only about 15 fertile seeds mixed in with several hundred non-fertile ones.
Othonna cremnophila in habitat: http://www.ispotnature.org/node/855079
There are photos of lots of other lumpy ones if you search for Othonnas in this wonderful resource.
Best wishes,
Derek Tribble,
Harrow Branch,
50th Anniversary Year
