Re: Plicatas - yellow

To try and answer Juri's question about WHAT is a yellow plicata....

I like to think there is no such thing!  If "plicata" is a genetic
factor for the distribution of anthocyanin pigments, then any yellow
present I would expect to be totally due to factors controlling the
ground.  But as we keep saying, the more answers, the more questions...

There are yellow pigments in some flowers which are of the water-soluble
type, could one of these also occur in Iris?  If so, then perhaps the
plicata factor could cause a true plicata with yellow markings.

In catalogues it is not uncommon to find the Joyce Terry/Debby Rairdon
type irises referred to as "yellow plicatas", when of course they are
not.

Light Beam is a good candidate for discussion.  From Broadway X Beverly
Sills, it is registered as solid lemon standards, white falls stitched
bright lemon.  Very close inspection shows that the yellow is not pure
yellow, but has a very slight butterscotch tone.  My guess is that it is
a ghost plic...a suppressed plicata, allowing very little anthocyanin
pigment to show, superimposed on a (vaguely) Joyce Terry pattern.

I say vaguely, because there definitely is a shading of yellow from the
edge in toward the center of the fall, and the yellow occurs not
contiguously in all areas, but also in definite patches or dots....more
in keeping with what we think of as a plicata-type pattern.   However,
there are a number of yellow-and-whites which, in shading from edge
toward center, show this unevenness to some degree, and these are
varieties with no obvious plicata heritage.  The color is probably
dictated by a distribution gene....but a gene which acts upon the
oil-soluble carotenes, and not our plicata gene which targets the
water-soluble anthocyanins.

I certainly don't know all the answers.  In fact, I'm not even smart
enough to know all the questions!

**Keith , who used to live in California, where the cross for Light Beam
was made.  Barry and Lesley Blyth were visiting from Australia and
making a few crosses.  When  Beverly Sills pollen was put on Broadway, I
criticized..saying Beverly Sills would not likely be appearing on
Broadway, instead she'd be at the Met, so the cross of Metropolitan X
Beverly Sills was also made.   Obviously she did her by-far-better
performance on Broadway that year....

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