Re: Bearded-beardless crosses
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Re: Bearded-beardless crosses
- From: z*@mindspring.com (L.Zurbrigg)
- Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 21:10:43 -0700 (MST)
>I don't know of even a single bearded-beardless hybrid. Does anyone else?
>One assumes that this has been tried many times in the history of iris
>hybridizing.
>
>Or maybe not: Perhaps it was just assumed that it couldn't happen so no
>one tried very hard.
>
>There are bearded-crested hybrids, but also so far as I know, no
>crested-beardless hybrids.
>
>Given this information it seems that the subgeneric classification of the
>genus Iris should be revised. Crested irises should no longer be grouped
>with beardless irises, but either with bearded ones or in a separate
>subgenus.
>
>What do you think?
>
>Bill Shear
>Department of Biology
>Hampden-Sydney College
>Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
>(804)223-6172
>FAX (804)223-6374
>email<bills@hsc.edu>
Dear Bill: I am not a botanist, or perhaps a taxonomist, ??? Yet I must say
that if crested will cross with bearded but not with beardless, it does
suggest that they are closer to bearded than to beardless. My pet idea is
that the crest is just a beard that did not divide into hairs. Lloyd Z in
Durham NC
