Hybridization of Carnivorous Plants

"Hi my name is Wes for ExpertVillage.com and in this video segment I’m going to show you about cross-pollination and hybridization of carnivorous plants. If you want to know more about these plants you can visit us at Equilibriocarnivorousplants.com. Now in cultivation one of the most interesting things about cross pollination is creating your own hybrids, hybrids occur naturally in the wild in some species, but you can be really creative with creating your own hybrids especially in cultivation under controlled conditions. So here we have two Mexican Pinguiculas, Mexican Butterworts, that are both in bloom. And in order to cross-pollinate them we need to reach into the flower of each plant, get a little bit of pollen on usually the end of a toothpick and pollinate the other flower. You can do this process several times to ensure cross-pollination. Another tool that you can use is a paint brush, this won’t work on flowers as small as this, but things like the flower structures of the Sarracenia work very well. Sarracenias are another plant that you often see hybrids of. For example here we have a Sarracenia Flava and a Sarracenia Purpurea, and right here is their natural hybrid the Sarracenia Catesbaei, this hybrid occurs like I said naturally but there are also very many varieties of Sarracenia that you can create through hybridization and cultivation."