That is fascinating! Do some hippeastrum form aerial bulbils? I have a wild onion that does that. Instead of seed, bulbils form. They are really neat. I sent some of these bulbs and bulbils to an allium lover in Illinois. The onions themselves were tiny, like pearl onions, and the bulbils were like premature onions. They are cool and obviously multiply like crazy.

On the other hand, Appleblossom will start producing a seed pod that looks quite healthy for some time and then aborts.

I am anxious to hear what you discover from this experience.

Cooolll!

Hi Elizabeth,
Sometimes,instead of seeds developing in the seed pod a row of tiny bulbuils form. They are geneticaly identical to the mother plant. It doesn't happen very often and I dont know of any method to induce it.
Those little lobed lumps are still developing so I have hope! :) Lora

Is that specific to this cultivar or does that ocassionally happen with all of them? I have never seen this before, and the thought is fascinating!

Do you think that the bulbils are formed by sprouted seeds or are they truly bulbils from the onset?

Please! I am truly ignorant when it comes to this phenomenum. Have you had this occur with others?

I'm pretty sure I have the same unidentified Griffinia and if that is the case I had the same thing happen before they aborted.....there is no species of Griffinia that is self-fertile to my knowledge. They do produce offsets like most Amaryllids however so you can easily reproduce it that way. Best of luck :o) Dan

Hi Elizabeth,
It happens with hippies sometimes and orchids make little clones off of stem joints & flower scapes called kikis.Daylilies will make them on the flower scapes too.

Hi Dan,
I knew it was a slim hope so I'll just wait for nature to take it's course :( This bulb came from Florida, you reckon it's a direct relative of your's? And would you be interested in the collected pollen for postage? Lora

Do you mean that they are similar to daylily proliferations? I have only seen a few of those. I don't know if it is because of my climate or because of the varieties that I have. I have rarely seen them, but I hear reports of lots of them from others.

Please do let us know what happens.

Hi Lora,

I imagine they are brothers as mine came from a guy in FLA as well....I'm drawing a blank on the name, but it was not Kevin Preuss that I am sure of. I have a friend in Brazil that supposedly is sending me some Griffinia....he said they are weeds on his property....go figure!! I sent him some of my Tacca and ginger in trade so I hope they arrive soon. The mail system getting to Brazil is painfully slow :o) Dan

Hi Elizabeth,
Yep,proliferation, except these are in the seed pod.

Hi Dan,
Well, it was an ebay purchase thru Arghya Gardens,never did get a real human being kind of name :o
It is a happy little thing,shipping in cold weather while in bud didn't seem to bother it and it's throwing a new leaf already.
I wish you the best of luck getting your babies in from Brazil. The gh I recently quit managing brought in a wholesale shipment of hippies from Brazil and it was rather disasterous. If your's are coming from a more private source then I wouldn't be as concerned. Lora

Lora,
I'm not sure you got my e-mail I wrote to you. I am not tryig to be pushy, just want to know if you got it.
Thank you.

Griffinia forms fleshy seeds as does H. reticulatum and Amaryllis belladonna. Your plant seems to be forming pods, but they may abort if not properly fertilized, as you know.

Good luck.

Hi Soultan,
Nope, you aren't pushy at all, I've not received any email from you :O Did you send it through GW or direct? I only use 1 email addy and DH has cleared all spam filters,we just can't figure out what is wrong with this darn thing! Please try sending it again or if you like just add it to this post.

Hi Robert,
I'll bet my mail isin't getting through to you either:(
Since there is no other pollinator I'm sure it will drop the pods. Maybe the next time I can get a pollen swap going. Lora

Haven't received any mail from you Lora.

R.

Hi Soultan,
Gardenweb emails are definately not coming through.Try mailing me directly & put Soultan in the title so I don't delete you :)

Hi Robert,
Darn! I practicly wrote you a book the other night and it's just gone:( It isin't even showing up in the sent mail folder,where do lost emails end up ?
Anyway,I wanted to let you know that the little guys you sent are doing great and throwing lots of new leaves. Lora

Hey Dan,Robert,over here!
I found a refrence to a self pollinator!Check out the link-look at the propagation part at the bottom of the page :)
It's a remote possibility....the pods are still hanging in there....I backlit the pods with a maglite (bout melted my retinas) and they have a certain amount of substance to them :)Yeah,it may be a bit overhopefull but it's still-possible-...... Lora

Here is a link that might be useful: Mainly Amaryllids

Hehe Lora,
I sent you a nice long e-mail and now I will have to redo the whole thing... I have to gather my strenght for it. Don't really know yet though how to e-mail you directly.

Lora~

I have read reports of plants being self-sterile (and have also seen some ferns listed as sterile) when in actuality they aren't--they're just so reluctant to give viable seed (or more than a very few viable spores) that they are just as well considered to be sterile in many people's eye.

But, after having looked at at some of the literature regarding Crinums and other Amaryllids, those difficult fertilizations and crosses *can* happen. It may take years of repeated attempts and might seem to be a matter of "holding your mouth right", but who knows...you're success might be the one that disproves what many would see as a "set in stone" truth. Keep trying, if selfing is all you can do in lieu of having outside pollen.

One thing that might help: If the pollen comes from the same species, selecting a clone that is as far-distanced as possible, or better yet, totally unrelated (if that can ever be known for sure. This has been shown to help those species (and hybrids?) that are said to rarely set seed, to do just that.

Sometimes the relative humidity is a factor. try to duplicate their natural environment as close as possible at flowering time, if you can.

One thing that is possible: your plant is a natural triploid hybrid that would guarantee sterility, AFAIK. It's probably stretching hope, but there are some lab experiments with upping the gene count to a multiple that will cross (usually and even number). They seem to rely heavily on chemicals, but with gene splicing, who knows what may come in the future....? A true blue amaryllis with genes spliced in from some other genus?

Robert.

Lora,

I am sure that I know what you are describing. It sounds just like those 'wild' onions that appeared in my yard years ago. I have searched and searched for pics of the plant, and the only pics that I can find are some that I took for an allium lover in Wisconsin. I sent him some of the bulbs and bulbils to try. I haven't heard from him lately, so I don't know how well they did for him.

The onions are very tiny and sweet, and after the tiny white flower cluster faded, little bulbils would form. When they were ready, you could just cup the tips of your figures around them and they would fall off into your hands. There was a long discussion on gw about the difference in these and walking onions.

The only difference in what you are describing and these, is that these will nearly ALWAYS form bulbils and there will never be any seeds.

Sorry for the poor pic, but these were taken with a video camera which was all that I owned at the time.

{{gwi:446069}}

They are quite fascinating, and there is another 'field' of them in a vacant lot nearby. I should collect more and try to make a bed of them. They are almost identical to pearl onions. Quite mild... (BTW, that is a quarter in the picture. The larger bulbs are the onion bulbs. The smaller ones are the bulbils which are about 1/8th to 1/4th the size of the mother bulb.)

I would love to find an Amaryllis that would produce these types of bulbils. I hope I am using the terms correctly. For some reason, I always tend to get bulbil and bulblet confused...

Hi Robert,
I dont quite have the lab conditions for gene-splicing,just do-it-yourself tc:)
Anyway,here is todays photo.

{{gwi:446067}}

Not too promising :(
But I will keep an eye on it till the end and plant whatever is in those little nubs just-in-case.....Lora

Hi Elizabeth,
We posted at the same time :)
Those onions are neat. Are Egyptian walking onions the same as perpetual onions? I have the winter hardy type that makes offsets from the growing tip. Not very sweet but not as sulpherous as some.
In a hippi with bulbils in the pod,the pod may split while still green and inside it will look like seeds have already sprouted. It happened with 1 pod on Ruby Meyer but I have no real good reason why. I do recall reading somewhere on the web that in theory,the pollen received by the flower stimulated the ovary but didn't accept it with the result being tiny clones. I dont know if it's pure bunk but it sounds a bit far fetched. Lora

There was a long discussion on the gw allium forum regarding these bulbs, and if I remember correctly, they decided these weren't the same thing as the Egyptian Walking Onion (I was new to all of this, so go figure...)

I will be sure to take some pics of the bulbils for you this spring. These bulbs, like most onions grow in the winter here, and die back in the summer. They don't look like seeds that have sprouted. The umbell (is that the term) splits, the bulbils grow and soon there is a cluster of bulbils attached to where the flower once was, just like seeds would do, only they are these small, tiny bulbils. The bulbils are dry and pointed and there is no green growth or roots on them.

These onions have never produced seeds, just bulbils. They are quite neat!!! It wouldn't surprise me to find that there are species hippeastrum that do this. If there is, I would love to have some!

Have you looked into embryo-culturing? It can be done at home if you can afford the set-up (Which I can't and don't have the space even of I could--without a fight, that is ;-) )

It would be great to try on those aborted seeds.......

I opened an aborted pod yesterday and saw some partially developed seeds in which I could see the inner structure of the seed. (The same as you can see in Lilium seeds by holding them up to strong light.) All I could so was to scratch them into the soil around the mother bulb and let them go. I marked the spot "just in case".

Robert.

Well... I watched till the bitter end and no, they didn't make it:(
Robert,
Most of the equipment for home tc can be improvised fairly easily.If you have a pressure canner you can sanitize equipment and make your own culture flasks. Recipes are available online for different culture mediums.I use clear plastic garbage bags to work inside of in place of a hood & filter,just soak everything well in rubbing alcohol :O
If you need an agitator,an old record turntable works just fine. Add a grow light in a place with a fairly stable temp and your good to go..... Lora

The most reliable source for Griffinia is Amaryllis Plus.
http://www.amaryllis-plus.com/

Kevin Preuss has been working with and reproducing Griffinia species for years. I have purchased Griffinia from him, and they are thriving. Kevin is a Botanist who has contributed several articles to IBS publications over the years. I believe one of those articles deals with Griffinia. He is VERY knowledgeable. I'm sure he would be happy to answer any questions you may have.