Pollinating Psoralea arophylla for Gregorius

The simplified protocol for crossing these plants (silverleaf scurfpea) is to find an uncrossed, flagged & bagged plant. Remove both bags, leaving the twist tie on the branch to be able to recognize it. Using a toothpick, transfer pollen from the donor flower on a plant to the receiver. (I have been doing a minimum of four and up to as many as possible on the branch) After the pollen is transferred, use a new toothpick to transfer pollen between the next two flowers. (Always a new toothpick)
Once all the flowers on the recipient are “pollinated” use a toothpick to paint the sepals under the flowers purple- then rebag using a white twist.
Record the flag number, the number of purple “self-recipients” and the colors of the painted sepals and twist tie.

Then transfer to the “donors” of pollen on that same plant. For this pollen, use another flowering plant AT LEAST 5 meters away – to avoid them being clones. Individually transfer from donor flower to donor recipient. These sepals get painted pink and the twist tie should be red. Record the number of flowers (it can be more or less than the recipient number) and the color of paint and the twist tie.

Sample data:
Flag #64 Purple – 5 White Twist Pink- 6 Red Twist

It is tedious to get the anthers out of the sheath, but they are loaded with pollen- so touching the toothpick loads it even if you cannot see them. I checked some anthers under the microscope and there is a good deal of pollen – it is clear so it doesn’t show up as well as some asteraceae pollen.
I’ll try to get pictures of the anthers sometime soon as well.