This year my sister noticed a few colonies of Crane Fly orchid at my
parents and right now many of the plants have podded.
Has anyone had any success in propagating these by seed?
What did you do?
I'll soon be moving to a house with similar conditions
in the back yard and thought it might be an educational
experience in introducing a new colony without

--
Chris Dukes
elfick willg: you can't use dell to beat people, it wouldn't stand up
to the strain... much like attacking a tank with a wiffle bat

wrote:
This year my sister noticed a few colonies of Crane Fly orchid at my
parents and right now many of the plants have podded.
Has anyone had any success in propagating these by seed?
What did you do?
I'll soon be moving to a house with similar conditions
in the back yard....

Most North American terrestrials are tough to grow by any means, let
alone from seed.

IIRC, they require the proper symbiotic soil fungi to succeed. Without
it, they simply won't grow. Maybe you could collect some soil from
around your parents's colonies and put it in your new yard with the
seed.

J. Del Col

wrote:
This year my sister noticed a few colonies of Crane Fly orchid at my
parents and right now many of the plants have podded.
Has anyone had any success in propagating these by seed?
What did you do?
I'll soon be moving to a house with similar conditions
in the back yard and thought it might be an educational
experience in introducing a new colony without


Google "tipularia propagation" and you will see an article from JSTOR
on exactly this topic. It concerns the need from woody debris as an
essential element for in situ germination of --Tipularia discolor--
seed.

J. Del Col

wrote:


That should be "need for woody debris..."

Mea culpa.

J. Del Col

Here in alaska some of my local society have sucessfully grown calypso
(collected from construction sites). They all say that you MUST take
the symbiotic fungus ("root ball") and move them to a site that
supports their need. For calypso that is moist shade with alot of
leaves and other forest matter. If the fungus dies so do the orchids,
alot of symbiotic orchids won't germinate unless they are with the
fungus.

Jack

wrote:
This year my sister noticed a few colonies of Crane Fly orchid at my
parents and right now many of the plants have podded.
Has anyone had any success in propagating these by seed?
What did you do?
I'll soon be moving to a house with similar conditions
in the back yard and thought it might be an educational
experience in introducing a new colony without

A couple of years ago, I was given some seedlings of T. discolor in
flask. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what media was used, but I assume
it was similar to the recipes used for Cypripediums and other
terrestrials. The seedlings appeared very vigorous in flask, but they
vanished never to return when I deflasked and planted them in a peat
based mix.

On the other hand, mature T. discolor seem fairly easy to transplant
and will grow in pots. It is almost a weed in the NC piedmont; when
the leaves are visible in winter, there are few wooded areas where it
can't be found, and I've even had it pop up in our gravel driveway.
You might just try collecting some mature capsules and scattering the
seed around your new property, but if you wait until winter, you may
find that plants are already there.

Nick