Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS APRIL 2012, 3 by splinter1804

splinter1804 wrote:
Hi everyone – It looks like the weather is changing with a lot of cloud around and a forecast of rain for the next few days. Why is it whenever I get things prepared to do a bit of work on my shade house it always bloody rains?

Karen – That’s a nice little collection of brom’s you got from Rick. I have a Till. Leiboldiana but it’s only the plain one. I got it originally as a NOID and when it flowered for the first time I thought it was a miniature type of Guzmania until I was told the correct name. I never knew there was a variegated and spotted one and it will certainly be a great addition to you collection. As for the unnamed ones; when they flower if you post a pic of the flower it’s possible someone here will know what it is.

Shirley – It’s nice of you to drop in even if you are having a difficult time without your computer. I know just how frustrating it is when you have to use an old slow computer when your main one crashes and you certainly have my sympathy.

Wendy – That’s a fantastic growth rate with the Portea seedlings, I haven’t looked at mine yet as I put them on one of the top shelves and I can’t get to them without the steps which my daughter has borrowed. Can you please keep picking the Port. Noettigii pods and get me a few seeds as well please (before Johnny chops it off)? As I would be very interested in growing some especially as it’s a species.

Your Billbergia seedlings have certainly taken off, where they the Hallelujah ones? Are you sure you haven’t got that magic formula that you’re keeping to yourself, or have you bottled some of that good stuff out of the rain and are feeding that to all of your seedlings they are all showing fantastic growth rates

I see you are still using the plastic take away containers; and I remember you tried a few different methods; drainage holes in the bottom, air holes in the top, no holes at all etc., what method did you find worked the best? I hope you will share your findings with us as we’re all here to learn.

Those striped Alcantarea seedlings Glynn has posted (the barber shop grex) will be a wonderful breakthrough in Alc breeding if that’s what they turn out to be. However they look very similar to some Guzmania seedlings I grew and I wonder if they may be bi-generic seedlings with the unknown pollen having come from a striped Guzmania?
Theoretically it is possible as Alcantareas and Guzmanias both belong to the same sub-family of bromeliads. Very, very interesting none the less, and only time will tell, I just wish I had a couple myself so who knows, a few years from now I may just be able to swap you a pup?.

Colleen - Like all young boys going on their first camping expedition they are understandably a bit apprehensive (fear of the unknown I think it’s called) but when they get home, they’ll be talking about it for weeks and wanting to know when they can go again. I know I still have fond memories of my first camping experience and that was over sixty years ago!

I’ve purposely left you until last today as you’ve asked a pretty in depth question which takes a bit of time to answer. Before I go any further, first let me say I’m certainly no expert on the cross breeding of different genera, and what I have written is just my understanding of how it all works.

To answer your question about crossing different genera with each other the answer is a “conditional” yes; the resulting seedlings are known as bi-generic (two genera) and are given a name made up of a part of each of the parent’s generic name which it is always written with a “x” before it to signify it is a bi-generic cross.

I mentioned a “conditional” yes, and by this I mean they can only be crossed with each other if they belong to the same bromeliad sub-family. For example you have the sub-family Bromelioideae which consists of the following genera some of which you will recognise:

Acanthostachys, Aechmea , Ananas, Androlepis, Araeococcus , Billbergia , Bromelia , Canistropsis , Canistrum, Cryptanthus, Deinacanthon , Disteganthus, Edmundoa, Eduandrea , Fascicularia, Fernseea , Greigia , Hohenbergia, Hohenbergiopsis, Lymania , Neoglaziovia , Neoregelia , Nidularium , Ochagavia , Orthophytum , Portea , Pseudaechmea , Pseudananas , Quesnelia , Ronnbergia , Ursulaea , Wittrockia.

As I understand it you could cross any of these with each other and it’s not impossible that you could get a result. There are quite a few registered examples, and below is just a very small sample of bi-generic crosses with some of the more common genera from the Bromelioideae sub-family.

xNeomea = (Neoregelia x Aechmea, xNidumea =(Nidularium x Aechmea),
xNiduregelia = (Nidularium x Neoregelia), xBillmea = (Billbergia x Aechmea),
xBillnelia = (Billbergia x Quesnelia)

Likewise you have the Tillandsioideae sub-family which consists of the following genera again with some of the more commom names recognised:

Alcantarea , Catopsis , Glomeropitcairnia , Guzmania , Mezobromelia, Racinaea, Tillandsia , Vriesea , Werauhia .
Of these, below is a very small sample of some registered crosses of the more common genera from the Tillandsioideae sub-family:

xVriecantarea = (Vriesea x Alcantarea), xVrieslandsia = (Vriesea x Tillandsia),
xGuzvriesea =(Guzmania x Vriesea)

There are many more and all of the registered crosses are listed in the FCBS Photo Index at http://fcbs.org/pictures.htm or the BCR at http://botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/bcr/index.php

I hope I didn’t confuse anyone, but it’s not just a simple “yes” or “no” answer so blame Colleen for asking the question.

Now for a few pic’s to finish. Pic 1 is the striped Guzmania seedlings I spoke of in my answer to Wendy’s post, Pic. 2 is one of the best known bi-generics of all, x Neophytum ‘Galactic Warrior’, Pic 3 is another commonly known bi-generic plant, xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’, Pic 4 shows three seedlings from the cross I bred from xNiduregelia ‘Something Special’ crossed with an unknown second parent (probably a Neoregelia). The plant on the left has gone on to take on the characteristics of the xNiduregelia while the two on the right look more like Neoregelias. and Pic 5. Probably the most attractive bi-generic of all in my opinion is shown in this magazine pic of x Neomea Fascidorffii. When I looked it up on the records it shows it was a cross between two of the most commonl plants we know, Aechmea Fasciata and Neoregelia Meyendorffii.

All the best, Nev.