Monday, May 8, 2017

Schlumbergera seedling no. 193

One cold hard scientific fact I've learned this year (thanks to reader Pattock) is that in Schlumbergeras, whiteness is recessive. It also seems to be the case that all white Schlumbergeras look pretty much the same.1 So unless you're specifically focused on breeding a bigger, more pest-resistant, more floriferous white Schlumbergera, it's not worth the time and effort to cross a white seedling with a pigmented one. Either the pigmented flower has a recessive white gene, in which case you'll get half pigmented and half white offspring, or it doesn't, in which case all the offspring will look like the pigmented plant.


I mean, the logic there might not be 100% sound, but it sure looks like that's the basic situation so far.

So seedling 193A's seed parent was the NOID magenta, which pretty clearly has a recessive white gene in it. And 193A is a really, really good white, with nicely-shaped, large blooms. It even photographed well for me, which doesn't happen that often with the white seedlings. So I do like it, and it's a keeper, but I don't expect to use it for any breeding.


Our name options: Arcade Gannon, Glass Slipper, Vapor Trail, White Knight. The name meanings are all pretty obvious, I think, except maybe for the first one: Arcade Gannon is a character in the video game Fallout: New Vegas, who I'm fond enough of to name a seedling after.2


So the first name to go is White Knight, because it's become mildly pejorative in the online world and I'm not that into the whole medieval thing in the first place. Chess either, for that matter. And I do try not to put the color of the flower in the name if I can help it.

And Glass Slipper would actually be a pretty good name for some of the white Schlumbergeras, as a lot of them end up looking semi-transparent in photos, but 193A mostly didn't photograph that way, so it seems like it would be more appropriate for one of the four other unnamed white seedlings.


And there's nothing wrong with Vapor Trail, but I'm obviously pretty into Arcade Gannon (even if I haven't explained why very well), so this one has to be 193A Arcade Gannon.

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1 Some white flowers look better than others, of course. Bigger/smaller flowers, more/less thrips damage, that sort of thing. But as far as the color goes, they're all the same; there's no spectrum of different shades of white to be explored: white is just white.
2 It's not completely unprecedented for me to give a seedling a game-related name, but it's only happened three times before: 067A Clyde (Pac-Man), 072A Chell (Portal / Portal 2) and 107A Nova Prospekt (Half-Life 2).
This feels a little weird, and I suppose it's not as classy as a mythological name (013A Tantalus, 057B Oxomoco, 066B Sigrid The Haughty, 077A Grendel), but it's kind of a distinction without a difference: video games are mythology too, like TV (102A Michonne) or movies (090A Lola). So it feels weird, but there's no reason not to do it if I want to, right?
I looked on YouTube for videos that would explain my fondness, but couldn't find anything that wasn't like five times longer than necessary, so you'll just have to take my word for it, I guess. He's one of eight characters you can have follow you around and help you shoot things. I've only played enough to recruit six of the eight possible companions, so I suppose I can't say Arcade is the best one, but . . . he's obviously the best one. He's gay, he's dryly funny, having him around makes it quicker and easier to heal from wounds ('cause he's a doctor), and he shoots things much more accurately than I do. (Though I think they all shoot better than I do.)
(Lily and Boone are also fun. Not a big fan of Rex or ED-E. I've only barely played with Veronica, and have never recruited Raul or Cass.)


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Those white ones look like frosted waterfalls to me..

Actually tried keeping a few Christmas cacti alive, starting 2 years ago or so. Fates disagreed, and they were lost to root rot/other issues, one after the other. Interestingly enough, Epiphyllum love me and grow/bloom like weeds. But Schlumbergera? NOPE!

Also wanted to mention: the Callisia Fragrans of yours is making its way to the top 3 favorite houseplants in our household. Its flower stalks have been putting out new/fragrant blooms every other week since their development past fall/winter, and show no sign of slowing down. One of those "gifts that keeps on giving".

Pattock said...

I think all scientific facts are warm, soft and cuddly - they only want to give you opportunities ;)