Fertilization & pedicel elongation in xAmaryllis
Michael Mace (Sat, 18 Sep 2010 11:05:23 PDT)

Ken wrote:

the capsules are?bulging with?MANY seeds, elongate the most

Nice observation, Ken.

Yes, I have seen the same things with my Amaryllis crosses. If you cross a
flower with something that it really doesn't like, not only will the pedicel
fail to elongate, but the plant will reabsorb the capsule, leaving a short
flat pedicel with nothing at the end. It's as if the plant is saying, "that
pollen was disgusting and I refuse to even pretend that I would set seed
with it."

This is what usually happens when I cross a Nerine sarniensis selection onto
an Amaryllis.

By the way, some of my Amaryllis selections seem to elongate more than
others. A couple of them elongate a lot. This doesn't seem to correspond
exactly to flower size, although it's probably fair to say that on average
bigger flowers tend to elongate more.

Also, flower heads that are one-sided when in bloom (the flowers all point
in one direction) sometimes become more radial as the pedicels elongate.

I have not seen elongation with the other amaryllids that have bloomed for
me -- Nerines and Haemanthus.

Mike
San Jose, CA