Re: CULT: Iris Turned White
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: CULT: Iris Turned White
- From: B* S* <B*@hsc.edu>
- Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 10:42:02 -0600 (MDT)
My guess on this is that the white variety is simply more vigorous than the
others and has outgrown and outcompeted them. The seedlings option is, I
think,less likely because of the rarity of bee pods on TBs and the
difficulty TB seedlings would have surviving among the clumps. The
seedling option does seem viable, though, for "reversion" in Siberians,
which self-seed freely.
One usually hears about "reversion" in relation to garden phlox. These are
ferocious self-seeders, and the new seedlings are all that mauve-magenta
some call "God's favorite color."
It would be an extremely unlikely thing for individual plants to change the
color of their flowers over time. Botanically I do not know of any
mechanism that would cause this.
By some manner of means, what is happening is that the original plants are
being somehow replaced by others, either through differences in growth
rates or by seeding.
One has to regard these enquiries with some skepticism to begin with.
Darwin once got an excited letter from a country squire which asked him to
explain why "all the peas are on the wrong side of the pod this year."
Darwin's reply, "What side are they usually on?" put an end to the
correspondence.
Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@hsc.edu>
