Heterosis

This is additional comments to Clarence's well-thought-out comments, but I 
didn't want to do a direct reply because it would make the whole thread too 
long...

I've been breeding iris for only 10 or 12 years or so, but I've also bred and 
shown pedigreed cats (mercifully a closed chapter in my life!) and rabbits for 
a lot longer, and I'd like to say that inbreeding becomes a problem no matter 
what it is you're breeding.  Keep in mind that any species is a pool of genes 
which is drawn upon to produce an individual plant or animal, and present in 
that pool are all the genes needed to allow the species to survive in all (or 
most) of the changing environments it encounters  over time and space.  

Hmm, that last comment sounds a little like Dr. Who...

Anyway, what we are doing when we are hybridizing is cutting away the unwanted 
characteristics to arrive at our individual goals.  But what we don't tend to 
think about is that we are also cutting away a tremendous number of the genes 
needed for survival, without even realizing it.  Hybrid vigor merely reflects 
the joining of two pared-down lines which may be able to supply some of the 
missing genes from each other's line, thus temporarily restoring some of the 
health of the iris from which the lines were developed.  Temporarily because 
presumeably the breeder will now continue line-breeding or inbreeding, 
thinking he or she has solved the vigor problem.

This is exactly why we need to make sure we don't lose the wild species.  All 
of our purebreeding programs, no matter how well intentioned, are in the end 
(which may be a long way off) dead ends.

Boy, do I sound pessimistic tonigh!.  Spring better not be too far off!

Barb, in Santa Fe, where some of the snow actually melted today.  Yay!
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