hand-pollenating Moraea with a Q-tip and a botanical latin glossary

M. Gastil-Buhl gastil.buhl@gmail.com
Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:34:20 PDT
Moraea confuse me.  I went out to hand pollenate some with a Q-tip and  
easily found the pollen. Bright orange powdery stuff, no confusion  
there. With the M. tripetala I did figure out to pull the crest away  
from the opposite tepal.
But I did not see anything that looked like a stigma or style.
I was looking for something in the center with a sticky top.

So I  read pages 29-30 of 'The Iris Family' by Goldblatt & Manning.
It says the styles are  "tangentially flattened, petaloid style  
branches ..." which I think are what I call "crests".
I never realized those crests were styles. I had assumed they were  
just decoration.
Still... I did not see where on those things the pollen should go.

Then, in 'The Moraeas of Southern Africa', Goldblatt 1986, page 10 it  
describes in M. tripetala "The anthers are appressed to the style  
branches and are usually concealed by the claw of the outer tepals."
So the anthers and the styles are pressed together. But not with the  
pollen touching the stigma surely.
"flattened and petal-like style branches" confirms those crests are  
the style, I think.

Referring to this photo of M. villosa
http://flickr.com/photos/gastils_garden/…
The pollen is orange and the backs of the anthers are light blue where  
they press up against the white crests, which I think are the styles.  
The white styles branch at the top.

"The style branches bear a pair of terminal appendages, the  
crests,..." OK so far. Then "at the base of which is a transverse  
stigma".
That is where I was stuck.
The stigma is supposed to be a "transverse lobe on abaxial surface at  
base of crests."
Abaxial means facing away from the center axis.
That would put the stigma right against the anthers. That would not  
work, would it?

Looking at Figure 1c on page 8, there is a label for the stigma. In  
this illustration the tepals are removed.
Near as I can tell, the stigma sits just above the anther.
I dont see that in that first photo of the M. villosa but I think I do  
see it in this photo:
http://flickr.com/photos/gastils_garden/…

Is the stigma in the exact center of the photo? Just above the anther  
facing the camera, and at the base of the crest fork, and white.  
"Transverse" means extending across, and if that is the stigma, it  
does king of look like a beam across the top of the anther.

And in this photo of Moraea villosa B,
http://flickr.com/photos/gastils_garden/…
one stigma is just to the right of center, pointing outwards from the  
style and it glistens, a sure sign of being a stigma.

Can someone confirm in time for me to catch with my Q-tip the two M.  
gigandra that look like they'll be open the same day tomorrow?

- Gastil



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