Old Hybridizers' Tales

Can't remember whether this came from an iris publication or personal
correspondence, but this tidbit is at least 15 years old -- it bubbled up from
the recesses of my memory during the discussion of dominant & recessive lines
and this seems like a great place to solicit observations that might confirm or
refute it.

Early attempts to produce pink-ground plicatas included crosses between
yellow-ground plicatas and pink selfs.  BUT, as Gene Hunt said,  "if you get the
pink, you don't get the plicata; if you get the plicata, you don't get the
pink."   And because most pink TBs do have the dominant gene that inhibits
anthocyanin expression, some of the offspring that would otherwise be
pink-ground plicatas have their plicata markings surpressed.


Now here's the folklore I'd like to check out:  

You can tell whether one of these seedlings is a plicata with surpressed pigment
or a normal self by putting it in food coloring.  If it's plicata, the
underlying vascular system is there and the food coloring will trace it -- but
if it's not a suppressed plic, the food coloring will disperse smoothly through
the flower.  The motive for all this experimentation is that the suppressed
plics are prime breeding candidates because the dominant inhibitor can be bred
out to let the pink-ground plic pattern show through.

Has anyone here actually tried this?  I don't have enough TB bloom to spare for
such an experiment because every flower I can get to open is destined for a
cross.  But I've done it with arilbreds and found that sometimes the color
spreads smoothly, but  more often than not the result is a plicata-like or halo
pattern.    Imagine a flower with normal rust dotting and veining set off by an
artificially green ground or intense green halo.  I've been sorely tempted to
take a treated stalk to the show, just to confound the judges -- but I wouldn't
be that mischievous -- would I?

Sharon McAllister (73372.1745@compuserve.com)
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