Re: pigments&genetics

Carole, there are two rich sources for the information you seek.  One of them
is a book published in 1978 called *The World of Irises,* now on close-out
sale through the AIS storefront at $15.   It is a book you would find
particularly valuble.  The AIS website home page is found at
http://www.irises.org/ with a list of forwarding links to various things you
may find of interest.  One of those links takes you to the Storefront.

The sections on pigments and genetics are over the heads of us all, and we
read them anyway.  Whatever you retain and understand will aid you.  Those
chapters will still be there when you are ready to absorb some more.

You will also find some other materials in the Storefront, among them a book
by William Shear.  Dr. Shear's book has been found very useful by many.  I
have not yet acquired it, but do intend to do so in the near future.

The other highly useful resource is the one in which you are now in the
midst--Iris-talk.  There is a search engine, and if you type in key words
about which you seek information you will be directed to numerous posts in
which those words appear.

Modern irises are mostly "tetraploids," meaning they have chromosome sets that
come in fours instead of the usual twos.  This complicates the genetics
enormously and allows for the incredibly varied collection of seedlings one
often gets from a cross.  "Like breeds like" is generally, but not always,
true.  Another factor affecting the rich variation you will discover is that
modern bearded irises are hybrids involving quite a few somewhat related
species.  The various colors, patterns and effects have come from many
sources, now being blended in something like thirty generations away from
their species origins.

No true red other than that found in the pinks is as yet present in iris.  Our
hope is that somewhere along the line a mutation will appear or a gene get
borrowed through bioengineering from a related genus such as Gladiolus.  For
the nonce, our reds are a bit on the brick-red side at best as they are a
result of blending water-soluble blue-violet and oil-soluble warm yellow or
orange in the same flower.  The reddest of the reds to date, I believe, have
come from the work of the Schreiners, although many others have contributed to
the development of this most difficult iris color.

Welcome to a wonderfully varied world!

Neil Mogensen   USDA zone 7, western NC near Asheville

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