Crossing Giant Waterlilies at Ventnor


Staff at Ventnor Botanic Garden are trying to hybridise an un-named version of Victoria amazonica with V. cruziana to produce a new hybrid. Chris Kidd, Curator at Ventnor Botanic Garden, had hybridised the two species when he was at Kew in 1994, and seeds from that cross were used throughout the UK for many years.

Giant waterlilies are known for their remarkable growth rate: they develop from a pea-sized seed to a plant with lily pads nearly 3 m in diameter. Within a few months, the pads are able to bear the weight of a child. Each flower opens at night and only twice. On the first night it is white, in order to attract scarab beetles, which are also attracted by the flower’s strong scent. At this stage, the flower is a receptive female. The flower closes overnight, trapping the beetle inside. The flower then changes sex, and releases pollen onto the imprisoned beetle. On the second night, the flower opens again, but this time it is pink. The beetle is freed from the flower and free to move onto another plant, again attracted by the white petals and strong scent. Pollination is complete and the lifecycle of the lily starts again.

Giant waterlilies have been grown from seed at Ventnor since 2002, but this is the first time hybridisation has been attempted there. Seeds of the two species were sown at Ventor on 3 March 2013 and the plants grew huge lily pads. On 8 July, they started to flower, and Hannah Rogers climbed into the pool in the Tropical House for a night-time dip to cross-pollinate them.

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