> Shame on you Neil, I thought you were a "Species Person"
> Dewey
>
> >If documented, what is the problem with trying to hybridize
Amorphophallus?
> >
> >(BTW the plural of Amorphophallus is Amorphophallus)
> >
> >Neil
Dewey and all, I do consider myself a species person....and a fairly
obsessed one by anyones standards. Personally I try to make Anthurium
hybrids whenever I can (because that is what I have).....mostly to see what
crosses with what. I stopped obtaining hybrids, for my collection, many
years ago.
To me it seems there are 2 main reasons to hybidize.....1. horticultural
reasons 2. taxonomic reasons , Both have there place and both are valid. The
rub, as I see it, is that records are generally poorly kept making for a
mess for taxonomists.
I am truly drawn by two distinct forces when it comes to my plants. 1. they
are beautiful 2. they are interesting in their diversity and relationships.
I can't say that one of these is a more powerful force than the other
but.....like a lichen, has two parts that can't live without the other. It
so happens with me that the diversity and beauty of the raw species is
enough to satisfy my beauty requirement.. ........My hybirdizing efforts are
more aligned with relationships than hybridizaition for the sake of
hybridization.
For example, the hybrid A. scherzerianum X A. wendlingerii helped place A.
wendlingerii firmly in section Porphyrochitonium.
Currently I am growing seedlings from my cross of A. vietchii and A.
tilaranense If these seedlings come out with any characteristics of
A.tilaranense ( A. veithchii is the seed parent), I intend to suggest that
A. tilaranense belongs in section Calomystrium instead of section
Semaeophllium, where it is placed now. ( A. tilaranenses exhibits
characteristics of section Calomystrium such as persistant intact
cataphylls, this hybrid may further support those characters).
So my question still remains......why not hybridize? It may rub some the
wrong way aesthetically perhaps? Some hybridizing certainly offends me
aesthetically ( hybrid tea roses for example, why did the USA pick this
foreign, desease ridden, chemically dependant plant for its National Flower
anyway?) and this is why I prefer species.......but some people like this
stuff and they have the right.
Neil
Neil
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