Hi all, starting a thread here to document the progress of my first successful germination of Phrag seed— after getting a tip from a friend that Phrags like to germinate at a pH of at least 6, I pH’d a batch of media to 6.3 before autoclaving and BAM, I got my first Phrag protocorms! Borne from a Phrag. Professor Braem (made with the album form of longifolium as its pod parent) that I picked up the Paph Forum back in January and fathered by the longifolium album that I’ve had in continuous bloom for nearly 1.5 years, I have high hopes for this cross.
Outlining the logic behind the cross: I drew inspiration from the lineage of Phrag. Polar Shift / Memoria Ann Stuckey, which is (schlimii x boisserianum) crossed to pearcei. In simpler terms, a pink phrag crossed to a green phrag which likely produced something pastel pink to near-white, then crossed to another green phrag which likely reduced the anthocyanin even further while still having some whitening/pasteling influence from the schlimii grandparent. The result being offspring that range from pink and white all the way out to nearly all white, (namely ‘Ghostwriter’ AM/AOS) save for a few dots lining the pouch.
As charming as they are, hypothetically how would one eliminate those last few dots of pigment? My first thought was doubling up on an albino allele that eliminates anthocyanin, which pretty much leaves longifolium album and besseae flavum. There has been lots of work done with besseae flavum and schlimii to produce white Phrags already, and I myself can’t seem to grow besseae particularly well, so this left me with the species I COULD grow well— longifolium. Thankfully I flowered my first seedling and it (even now!) hasn’t decided to stop blooming. Next I needed to check if there’s record of longifolium backcrosses working in the past, and lo and behold, Veitch figured out that schlimii x longifolium backcrossed to longifolium works all the way back in 1883 with Phrag. Calurum. Photos of this cross seem to have used darkly pigmented forms of the species and produce hybrids that look like chunky magenta longifoliums!
Okay, so previously attempted hybrids show that backcrosses with longifolium work, and mixing pink with green can make pastels to near whites; what is there to be done that builds on top of past work without reinventing the wheel? Enter a lumper taxonomist’s nightmare, Phrag. manzurii— hybrids made with this variety/close cousin of schlimii come out different compared to schlimii, notably with flatter petals with a white midrib, two traits that would come in handy for making a nice white flower! These traits, in addition to two copies of the album allele from the species longifolium, ought to produce flowers that are free of purple/red pigment as well as reduced green pigment thanks to manzurii. Only time will tell if this hunch is correct, but having these protocorms in hand makes me feel optimistic!
Outlining the logic behind the cross: I drew inspiration from the lineage of Phrag. Polar Shift / Memoria Ann Stuckey, which is (schlimii x boisserianum) crossed to pearcei. In simpler terms, a pink phrag crossed to a green phrag which likely produced something pastel pink to near-white, then crossed to another green phrag which likely reduced the anthocyanin even further while still having some whitening/pasteling influence from the schlimii grandparent. The result being offspring that range from pink and white all the way out to nearly all white, (namely ‘Ghostwriter’ AM/AOS) save for a few dots lining the pouch.
As charming as they are, hypothetically how would one eliminate those last few dots of pigment? My first thought was doubling up on an albino allele that eliminates anthocyanin, which pretty much leaves longifolium album and besseae flavum. There has been lots of work done with besseae flavum and schlimii to produce white Phrags already, and I myself can’t seem to grow besseae particularly well, so this left me with the species I COULD grow well— longifolium. Thankfully I flowered my first seedling and it (even now!) hasn’t decided to stop blooming. Next I needed to check if there’s record of longifolium backcrosses working in the past, and lo and behold, Veitch figured out that schlimii x longifolium backcrossed to longifolium works all the way back in 1883 with Phrag. Calurum. Photos of this cross seem to have used darkly pigmented forms of the species and produce hybrids that look like chunky magenta longifoliums!
Okay, so previously attempted hybrids show that backcrosses with longifolium work, and mixing pink with green can make pastels to near whites; what is there to be done that builds on top of past work without reinventing the wheel? Enter a lumper taxonomist’s nightmare, Phrag. manzurii— hybrids made with this variety/close cousin of schlimii come out different compared to schlimii, notably with flatter petals with a white midrib, two traits that would come in handy for making a nice white flower! These traits, in addition to two copies of the album allele from the species longifolium, ought to produce flowers that are free of purple/red pigment as well as reduced green pigment thanks to manzurii. Only time will tell if this hunch is correct, but having these protocorms in hand makes me feel optimistic!
