mexipedium hybrids?

[PaphMadMan]

I still haven't seen any convincing pictures of a Paphmipedium, they have all looked like 100% Paphiopedilum crosses to me. We have been successful with Mexipedium x Phragmipedium crosses and got them to germinate in the lab, but like Eteson mentioned earlier, they were all poor growers in the lab (often kept proliferating, and never got any good looking seedlings). Only one cross ever made it out of the lab (wallisii x Mexipedium) but it never bloomed for us, and eventually died in the greenhouse.

Has anyone tried Cypripedium x Phragmipedium or Cypripedium x Paphiopedilum, I would think especially the more tropical Cypripediums (from Mexico or Southern China) might be able to produce compatible offspring when mated with Phrag's or Paph's...

Robert

When you had crosses with proliferation, did you ever try hormonal manipulation to trigger differentiation? That seems like it could be a relatively straight forward problem (for someone whose tissue culture experience is a lot more recent than mine).

If I wanted to place a bet, Cypripedium x Selenipedium would be the slipper intergeneric I'd put my money on.

 

[MorandiWine]

I think that Fibre called it correctly. The similarities are too many in my eyes. Genetic evidence is really the only way.

tyler

 

[Ernesto]

Reviving this thread after seeing Marilyn’s Mexipedium in bloom at her greenhouse (my first time seeing one in person!) and chatting about the possibility of hybrids with Phrags— has there been any progress made on this? I know using 4N plants is an idea that has been tossed around, but as far as I know nobody has 4N Mexipedium, and to make one would take a long time.



An idea that has been on my mind lately is the possibility of inducing polyploid pollen on a developing bud using colchicine and using that for the intergeneric cross. There was a paper published last year demonstrating the method in Phalaenopsis, and as Phrags are sequential bloomers, one would have multiple tries to get the technique right. Thoughts?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9868330/

 

[tnyr5]

It's an interesting idea, but you'd have to figure out a way to separate the diploid pollen from the haploid without killing it in the process. Easy with the loose pollen of most food crops/ornamentals, not so easy with Slippers where all the pollen is mixed together in a ball of wax lol.

 

[NYEric]

Good luck. Dr. Glichenstein would have said, "Go for it!".