Re:Hybridizing-Chimeras

I get at least five here every year and have a file folder of them that 
I keep seperatly. Not all changes  involve flowers. Sometimes  foliage 
colour. I have one that had a sport with PBF while mother plant didn't. 
I have a sport now of Forever Blue that looks as if it will be an IB in 
height.

I have had both cartenoid and anthocyanin chimera flowers. The most 
interesting ones are where each flower on one side of flower stalf had 
the same point mutation.  Sometimes they are most dramatic and involve 
a  whole petal, sometimes only a small portion of the flower petal.

I have one in the garden now and took  its picture  yesterday.  Just a 
small wedge of yellow on purple falls.

Kerr has an article on this phenomeon in Tall Talk Fall 2004. For a 
more detailed study the book "Plant Cimeras" by Richard A. E. 
Tilney-Bassett  is a must. Fascinating reading. A number of comercial 
apples are tetraploid/diploid chimeras. Very many different forms and 
clasification of chimeras.  All variagated leaves, that is white and 
green are chimeras. Classified by type by lavers of cells. Some fancy 
names for these. I was reading this section in the car and started 
laughing at the creativity of the names, funny, no one else got the 
joke, even after I explained it.  (Sometimes the wife wonders about me. 
)

As for red (read maoon and brown , rust etc)  they are all a  visual 
effect of differing amounts of anthocyanin and carotene pigments.  When 
you put an epidermal peel of an iris flower under high magnification 
(600 x up) you can differentiate plastids containing carotene pigments 
(contained in cell wall) from the  disolved anthocyanin in cell vacuole 
(centre). you can also see small globuals of anthocyanin solids known 
as anthocyanin vascuole intrusions. These occur in some flowers, but is 
relatively uncommon. When you extract pigment from any of these 
"reddish" group you clearly get a seperation of anthocyanin and 
carotene. pigments. the anthocyanin from a reddish flower is no 
different then the anthocyanin from  a blue flower. Anthocyanain is 
very sensitive to ph or acidity of solvent, and anthocyanin from red 
cabage is often used in high school chemistry labs to test ph, the 
colour changes indicating ph.  To compare extract from one flower to 
another, the ph and concentration of solution MUST be the same. A thin 
layer chromotography and spectrometer analysis show them to be the same.

Another way to test this is to take an epidermal peel from a blue 
flower and place it over a yellow flower. Voila, a reddish colour, no 
contact of chemicals though.

Chuck Chapman


___________________________________________________
Try the New Netscape Mail Today!
Virtually Spam-Free | More Storage | Import Your Contact List
http://mail.netscape.com



------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Protect your PC from spy ware with award winning anti spy technology. It's 
free.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/97bhrC/LGxNAA/yQLSAA/2gGylB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iris-photos/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    iris-photos-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index