SPEC: Iris from seeds

Paige Woodward wrote:

:  A couple of years ago we began growing Iris species from the West
:  Coast and eastern Asia. All our plants are from seed and most of that
:  seed is wild-collected. We have noticed that some spp. grow faster
:  and look fuller than others, but until now we have assumed that
:  shorter or spindlier plants represent spp. that are just different,
:  or perhaps later-maturing. A note by Adele and Lewis Lawyer, however,
:  makes us wonder if some of these plants might not be a trifle inbred.
<snip>
:  Comments from geneticists and growers would be most welcome. =


The advantage of using wild-collected seeds is that they expand our
cultivated gene pool.  The disadvantage is that their composition is not
just unknown, but unknowable. =


Inbred?  Probably not, in the sense we use the term in hybridizing.  It
will certainly be well-adapted to its micro-climate, and thus its members=

may differ in their performance when compared to members of other colonie=
s
or selected, named or numbered cultivars.  A small colony is usually more=

inbred than an large one, but even an isolated wild colony probably has a=

more diverse gene pool than an individual grower can assemble in captivit=
y.

Hybrid?  Possibly.  It depends on the proximity of separate species.  I'v=
e
grown a wide variety of iris species from seeds, in addition to
hybridizing, so this does not pertain strictly to PCNs.  In general I've
noticed that plants from inter-species crosses are more diverse than thos=
e
from intra-species crosses.  They range from exceptionally weak to
extremely vigorous.  The latter are ones we cite and distribute as exampl=
es
of "hybrid vigor" -- important cultivars, but their existence should not
mislead us into expecting all inter-species offspring to be equally
vigorous.

Run-of-the-mill?  Definitely -- just as most seedlings from
hand-pollinations are nondescript.  Because superior parents TEND to
produce superior seedlings, an intra-species cross using superior parents=

is likely to produce better offspring than would a random wild cross.  Bu=
t
just as we don't expect every advanced-generation seedling we produce to =
be
a Dykes Medalist, we can't expect all seed-grown species to equal the
selected cultivars.

Sharon McAllister (73372.1745@compuserve.com)
Still no easy answers.
    =



 =
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index