Back in April, Donald Eaves mentioned seeing turquoise
style arms on some of his arilbred seedlings. He even
had a seedling with nice color out on the falls. I
mentioned that I had a seedling (diploid bearded) that
I thought might have a similar color on the style
arms.
I don't know if it's really the same or not, but
here's that seedling -- for discussion sake -- I've
cross-posted to Iris-Talk, in case anyone wants to
discuss the possibilities.
On the left (biggest picture) shows the style arms
with all of the falls removed, and one standard
snapped down. I wasn't sure how the color would turn
out in the picture, but on my computer it looks pretty
accurate. The tips of the standards and the ends of
the style arms are pale-purple (as in real life) in
contrast to the ribs of the style arms which are at
least less purple, more blue -- and if you're a
dreamer, maybe even tending towards turquoise???
In case the colors were off in the images, I took a
comparison shot (upper right picture) showing three
typical seedlings' style arms in my hand above the
seedling in question.
The bottom right picture shows those same three
comparison seedlings with an unrelated seedling that
shows a degree of that same coloring on the ribs of
its style arms. I've been using pollen from this one
on the other hoping to increase or intensify this
effect.
Any thoughts on what I'm seeing? Is it wishful
thinking? Is there maybe a copigment that is only
being expressed in the style arms of these particular
seedlings? And don't be afraid to "rain on my parade",
I can take it. ;0)
Thanks, Tom
