RE: colchicine
- To: hosta-open@mallorn.com
- Subject: RE: colchicine
- From: h*@open.org
- Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 20:18:49 -0800 (PST)
Rick:
>I am treating buds as they come out of dormancy. Active cell
>divisions are occurring. Perfect time for treatments.
In an earlier message you mentioned that the hostas you treated were
probably cytochimeras. Any treated hosta is going to have to be a L1
and L2 conversion to be stable if hostas have two histogenic layers.
If hostas have three histogenic layers then a L1, L2 conversion should
be reasonably stable.
The question I have for you, or anyone else on this list, is there any
potential for tetraploid hostas? Are the conversions you are getting
showing any significent attraction that will make average gardeners
covet them? It seems to me that converted hostas will have more value
as breeding stock than for use in a garden, which is what we find in
daylilies. However, if hostas have unreduced gametes, it seems to me
that a few converted tets used with hostas producing unreduced gametes
would be the easiest path for developing tetraploid hostas.
However, there is one other concern. In daylilies the fertility of
the early converted material and their early decends were quite
limited. However, over time fertility increases and now tetraploid
daylilies are quite fertile. The same may be true for hostas, but I
see a secondary problem with tet hostas that are not present in other
genera. Diploid hostas with 60 chromosomes are probably already a
amphidiploid, so doubling them up to 120 chromosmes will make for a
lot of crowding in the nucleus. There is a lot of potential for
chromosome abnormalities at the tet level that can result in all kinds
of fertility problems.
Joe Halinar
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