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hybrid Pollen transfer observations

Max Nihil

Max Nihil

The other day I watched a single bee in my garden go from a Piquin to a Tabasco, to a Borg-9, to a habanero and continue for a few more plants before I lost track of it.

At each of these plants it visited 1-3 flowers.

Bees have been observed in the garden at nearly all times of day when the sun is out and often dozens are visible working at a time.

I have noticed other pollinators like various flies and even thrips, as well as bumblebees. I have raspberries in a large patch next to my pepper patch and the raspberries attract a lot of bees.

Last year I had raspberries as well, naturally, but I had only two Habanero plants in the yard and observed very little pollination and one of the plants had very low fruit set. This year nothing has low fruit set.

I have about 40-50 Capsicum plants and bees frequent the plants daily. I expect that the rate of outcrossing from pollen transfer is very high among the plants at present, particularly for those plants with a stigma or style that extends past the anthers of the flowers.

My observation is that as the # of plants increases so does the chance that pollinators will take specific notice of them. Last year I didn't have bees looking for and specifically visiting Capsicum flowers but this year there are many.
This is desirable for me as that I am not fond of inbred things.
 
I observed the same; it's crazy to see how many flowers a bee/bumblebee can visit in a single run and how many bees can land on a single flower over time! Mother Nature is a whore mate and there's not much one can do about it...!!
 
I've been periodically examining random flowers of the plants in my garden and looking at the length of the pistils, when the stile extends out the stigma is exposed where it can be freely pollinated by whatever is able to transfer pollen from flower to flower and plant to plant, which can be a lot of things.

In many Capsicum plants however the stile is much shorter and the stigma is not exposed and things like bees can visit the flower, collect pollen and not come into contact with the stigma, which instead of sticking out of the flower is now sheltered just inside it. Flowers with shorter stiles are more likely to be self pollinated than cross pollinated.

It's a bit graphic, flowers being plant genitalia after all... basically some flowers keep their bits to themselves and they don't get around much... but flowers that dangle their bits out for the world to see are quite promiscuous. Out-crossing rates for them can even be over 90%, if simple pollinators (bees etc) visit the flowers.

In my garden my Capsicum annuum representatives all have long stiles that make cross pollination likely. Those are Pequin, Prik Ki Nu Thai, and Rat Tail Chile De Arbol, just one plant each.

My Capsicum frutescens representatives also all have long stiles. They include 4 Tabasco plants and 1 Tabasco hybrid crossed with an unknown upright chili, quite possibly Chiles Japones, given the phenotype.

However, when it comes to Capsicum chinense dominant plants including the super-hot as well as habanero types, the vast majority of those plants have short stiles, with some noteworthy exceptions. In a single plant there can be variation with some flowers a bit more extended and others a bit more withdrawn, but most are similar. The 2 commercial "ghost pepper" plants I purchased at a local nursery (very floral and not super-hot) have most of their stigmas extending out just a bit.

One of my Chocolate Bhutlah plants has been throwing just a few nearly tennis ball sized brown "pods" that when cut open have the unmistakable bell pepper like odor of 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, the primary aromatic flavoring in numerous Capsicum annuum. The other Chocolate Bhutlah plants produce berries that do not smell like bell peppers, are a bit smaller in size and contain much more visible capsaicin oils.

I suspect the plant with the larger berries with the bell pepper odor is itself an unintended or accidental cross of Chocolate Bhutlah with an unknown selection of Capsicum annuum, interestingly the plant has extended stiles and many flowers but few of them have actually set fruit, also suggesting it could be an interspecific F1. As an example of a plant with extended stiles it should have increased cross pollination, leading to more and larger fruit with more numerous seeds when compared to self pollinated plants.

I have (at least) 10 Capsicum chinense dominant plants for every plant I have of Capsicum annuum, most of those chinense plants have a short stile and the majority of the seeds they produce should be from self-pollination. Because there are only a couple of C. annuum and C. frutescens and over two dozen C. chinense; any pollinator moving between two plants is more likely to be moving to or from a C. chinense than it is another species and if it is visiting any of the other species it is likely to have visited one or more of the C. chinense plants first.

In this arrangement the majority of the seeds of the C. chinense with their short stiles will likely breed true while seeds of C. annuum and C. frutescens should include C. annuum X C. chinense and C. frutescens X C. chinense. I wish I had the space required to grow 10,000+ seedlings, screen through them and find the gems amongst them.
 
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Hi Max, this is such an interesting topic you are touching on. I have also been trying to make sense of this. As a seed vendor in Africa, my particular point of interest and quest was to establish flower traits that would indicate if a cultivar was truly self pollinating. Good to know as this would also ensure stability. Many growers claim that all capsicum are self pollinating and thus cross pollination is not an issue. But, as we know capsicum flowers are geared towards self pollination, insect pollination and wind pollination. In my experience there is simply too many crosses year on year to say crosses are minimal. So for me, what I was looking for was the cultivar that would be capable of self pollination without reliance on insects or wind.

I wish I had done Biology at high school and my observations are probably riddled with flaws. What I began to notice was that there were essentially 3 different category of Stigma and 3 different category of Anthers with capsicum flowers.

pollenflowers.png



I believe that plants have the ability to adapt to environments that they are growing in (isolated, humid, dry, windy, lots of insects etc). That the physiological traits of a flower are adaptable to the growing environment and climate. That each flower is geared towards either self, wind or insect pollination and that it is able to adapt to any one of these to ensure survival. Extended Stigma for instance, I was thinking is geared towards wind pollination. By protruding from the flower, it is less likely to self pollinate and most suited for picking up pollen from the wind (like a proobe). C. Galapagoense, as an example of plants growing in isolation, have perfectly touching anthers and stigma. I call this inward anther & inline stigma. These plants are geared towards self pollination in lieu of their remote isolation. The short of it for me has been that Inward Anther & Inline Stigma seem to me the most likely cultivars to self pollinate due to the direct contact between anthers and stigma. My interpretation of short stigma was that these plants would be geared better towards insect pollination as insects would be coated by pollen from anthers, which in turn would be transferred to the stigma trying to reach the nectar. Outward anthers I thought to be more open and receptive for pollinators. I am not at all sure about all the other flower traits and this is pretty much were I am at with my observations. I believe there are so many factors that determine a flowers set up. I would love to go back to the wilds and see what traits they carry.

Reading your post, has raised food for thought. I love this gray matter stuff when growing chillies. Thank you for your awesome post.
 
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PeriPeri said:
Hi Max, this is such an interesting topic you are touching on. I have also been trying to make sense of this. As a seed vendor in Africa, my particular point of interest and quest was to establish flower traits that would indicate if a cultivar was truly self pollinating. Good to know as this would also ensure stability. Many growers claim that all capsicum are self pollinating and thus cross pollination is not an issue. But, as we know capsicum flowers are geared towards self pollination, insect pollination and wind pollination. In my experience there is simply too many crosses year on year to say crosses are minimal. So for me, what I was looking for was the cultivar that would be capable of self pollination without reliance on insects or wind.

I wish I had done Biology at high school and my observations are probably riddled with flaws. What I began to notice was that there were essentially 3 different category of Stigma and 3 different category of Anthers with capsicum flowers.

pollenflowers.png



I believe that plants have the ability to adapt to environments that they are growing in (isolated, humid, dry, windy, lots of insects etc). That the physiological traits of a flower are adaptable to the growing environment and climate. That each flower is geared towards either self, wind or insect pollination and that it is able to adapt to any one of these to ensure survival. Extended Stigma for instance, I was thinking is geared towards wind pollination. By protruding from the flower, it is less likely to self pollinate and most suited for picking up pollen from the wind (like a proobe). C. Galapagoense, as an example of plants growing in isolation, have perfectly touching anthers and stigma. I call this inward anther & inline stigma. These plants are geared towards self pollination in lieu of their remote isolation. The short of it for me has been that Inward Anther & Inline Stigma seem to me the most likely cultivars to self pollinate due to the direct contact between anthers and stigma. My interpretation of short stigma was that these plants would be geared better towards insect pollination as insects would be coated by pollen from anthers, which in turn would be transferred to the stigma trying to reach the nectar. Outward anthers I thought to be more open and receptive for pollinators. I am not at all sure about all the other flower traits and this is pretty much were I am at with my observations. I believe there are so many factors that determine a flowers set up. I would love to go back to the wilds and see what traits they carry.

Reading your post, has raised food for thought. I love this gray matter stuff when growing chillies. Thank you for your awesome post.
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BBG varieties seem to be the perfect examples of almost automatic self-pollination. The bigger the calyx the greater the probabilities are that self pollination would occur before bees or wind can have their chance to mix things up!
 
Bou said:
BBG varieties seem to be the perfect examples of almost automatic self-pollination. The bigger the calyx the greater the probabilities are that self pollination would occur before bees or wind can have their chance to mix things up!
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Hey Bou, I was not aware of this. Will check it out and see if I can find some images of flowers.
 
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Karpasruuti said:
And same reason I hate this. Very difficult to crossbreed. I'm growing atm variety that has twisted flowers, like snakes.
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Any picture of those??
 
Bou said:
Any picture of those??
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Not probably the best pictures atm. But they tend to bend weirdly and are tight. Sometimes they will be a bit easy to handle when they grow in a more natural way. I'll wait for now that I get ripe pods and then I try to crossbreed again.

This is called Peach Bleeder. It's Borg 9 with bleeding calyx x unknow cross.
 
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