Aerangis arachnopus - pollinia

Does anyone grow Aerangis here?
For propagation-matters we would need pollinia of the species Aerangis arachnopus. Would swap pollen in return, too, of course. ´Flowers of our plants are expected in about August/September 2009. We tissue-propagated this species about 6, 7 years ago so all of our plants are clone-identical and can´t be crossed among each other. Important that the ID of the species is proved to be correct.
thanks
in-vitro

 

@Migratoris
thanks a lot for your wishes. Finding an arachnopus as a clone-different and pollen-donating plant anywhere upon the globe isn´t so difficult. Chance is quite vivid to trace one. As always it´s rather not a thing of a plant´s existence but a humane kind of readiness and to convince people that property is *nice* but the conservation of an actually endangered species is still a wee bit more important. It´s a matter of fact that we who are caring for some rare species´ propagation and their further existence are always jeopardizing a handful owners´ pride who simply watch out to be and stay the only who do possess and are allowed to possess. So you can turn it as you want, either some are endangering a species´ exsistence by holding it back, hiding it or we are compromising the value of their property by propagating and distributing species . I saw into the faces of people as Aerangis appendiculata got available again upon Europe. There wasn´t happiness only but sometimes disappointment, too. Weird anyhow, isn´t it? So opening the eyes of some owners in order to watch the situation from another point of view is often the biggest hurdle. And the only factor one needs plenty of is *time* and during that keeping the own material in a good temper hoping whilst seeking for a plant as a pollen-donator one doesn´t lose the plant which should act as pollen-acceptor and pod-carrier finally. Exciting thing, isn´t it?
in-vitro

 

I just want to post an up-date here after initiating an - as it appeared and how it got - worldwide search for pollen referring this cute species Aerangis arachnopus. Well, we could pollinate 11 flowers this year (out-cross) but 10 of them dropped after a while. The last is now both, our hope and glory. Pollination took place at the end of July, plan is to cut it off about middle of December, about 2 months before its averagely ripening-time is ending.
Additionally we achieved a just starting germination of Aerangis hologlottis, an (ex-)African species occurring upon Sri-Lanka mainly but where almost all known habitats suffered a lot from the long-lasting civil-war. Most were destroyed. As an extremely short-living species it is planned to re-establish habitats there again. But as often the plan what happens to seedlings and shall be their future fate is already fixed far before the plants appear as protocorms. I am actually faced with the information that the natural vector (pollinator) got extinct (almost versus totally?) so a re-establishment would be useless.
Thanks also for a collaboration pushing Aerangis appendiculata seedlings from printed book-pictures back to life again. The first batches shall be ready for deflask in the course of 2010.
In 2010 we try to get Aerangis jacksonii back to availability, including Aerangis decaryana, maybe Aerangis collum-cygni, too, and we plan a re-make of Aerangis chirioana. Can already sense your sweating & trembling *MB* and thought of you overtaking some as - how do we call that? - … items on loan .
Thanks for your all help especially referring the arachnopus-pollinia. I am tried to keep you informed about the arachnopus´ viability then,
i.v.

 

That´s the point, commerce destroyed a lot. Species are kept low in availability just in order to keep the price high. Species are only propagated when the chance is vivid enough money re-flows into the pocket of one´s own. One must start thinking in a different way, initiating a propagation-project when the species demands after that, be it that the natural habitat is endangered in its existence, be it that we are faced with a severe clone-problem or that the species is little showy only and no one cares whether it goes lost or not.
I recently harvested a pod of Cattleya nobilior containing about 2 million seed-corns. Mother nature planned that every orchid seed-corn requires a certain fungus without a germination can´t happen as you maybe know. The chance that even a few seed-corns out of that pod will meet this fungus and start a germination is considerably slim. That´s the reason why it takes so many seeds in quantity just in order to increase the chance. Over the asymbiotic-method of propagation we can obtain a germination-rate of almost 100% what means in other words almost each seed-corn we do sow gets to germination. Can you tell me what to do with about 2.ooo ooo Cattleya nobilior seedlings? I can imagine you´ll have a lot of ideas including reforestation in natural habitats, maybe even the hint you want some. You can get 1.000, do you like them? It´s so paradox as we own the technique to flood the world with orchids. We own the technique but we don´t use it really. We don´t care, are actually interested in hybrids, creating still more lousy hybrids, sighing only all these orchid-species become extinct and there´s nothing we can do against it … . I am working on this, T. Migratoris, you will obtain your desired jacksonii and you won´t have to run mad because of that just you guaranteed me you keep them well and we can get to pollinia/seeds when it becomes important again. Is that a deal?