Re: mesopotamica influence (was REB: PERFUME COUNTER)

Juri Pirogov writes:

(Jeff Walters wrote:)
> > However, nearly all of the ancestors of BCP had undergone 5 or more
> > generations of selection in the American Midwest, which should have
> greatly
> > reduced any tendencies towards tenderness derived from the mesopotamica
> > strain in their ancestry.
> > 
> Jeff,
> thank you for so detailed study with so unexpected result.
> Tenderness could be reduced but fall dormancy???

Juri,

I am assuming that the lack of winter dormancy in I. mesopotamica and it's
immediate derivatives accounts for a large part of their observed
"tenderness" in colder climates. As Hager has pointed out, pink TB's must
have a measurable amount of I. variegata in their inheritance, since the
pink color is produced by a mutant form of carotenoid pigment, and I.
variegata is the source of the normal (yellow) carotenoid inheritance in
TBs. I. variegata is native to the Pannonian Basin of the middle Danube and
is the species among those that are major contributors to modern TBs with
the strongest tendency to winter dormancy. My assumed hypothesis is that
generations of selection of TBs in a colder winter environment such as the
Midwest would tend to favor the dormancy characteristics inherited from
variegata and select against lack of dormancy that might be inherited from
mesopotamica. 

A further hypothesis is that a winter climate such as that typical of
Illinois and Missouri, where most of the breeding of BLUE CHIP PINK's
immediate ancestors took place, which is characterized by alternate periods
of freezing and thawing, would be even more effective in selecting against
a lack of winter dormancy in seedlings than a winter climate typical of
this area (and perhaps yours, too), where it remains cold enough throughout
the winter to suppress plant growth, even in forms that lack a natural
tendency to go dormant.

Jeff Walters in northern Utah  (USDA Zone 4, Sunset Zone 2)
cwalters@digitalpla.net
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