HYB: Beard Color

Tom Tadfor Little wrote:

:  The genetics of beard color is not well understood. It seems in many
cases
:  to be inherited separately from the genes that affect petal color. =


That has been my experience, but the color itself does seem to follow the=

classic interaction charts.  I've been trying to get a truly black beard
for years, so have a few thousand observations to draw on....

Perhaps a couple of specific examples will help.  LOVE SHINES IN has a
narrow, bright yellow beard, but produces a wide range of types and color=
s
when used with different partners. =


KIOSK  also has a yellow beard.  Crossed onto LSI, it  produced beards
ranging from yellow, through orange and grey poupon to burgundy.  All of
the flowers, however, were yellow selfs or bitones.  They had differing
amounts and types of rust markings on the falls.

JOINT VENTURE has a plush, brown-black beard.  (Near-black beards have bo=
th
yellow/orange and purple pigments.)    Beards of its seedlings with LSI
ranged from narrow through wide, and sparse to downright bushy.   Color
ranged from bright yellow through "grey poupon" to near-black.   Flower
color ranged from pale blue over buff through a variety of pastel
combinations to lavender over smoky red-violet  -- but both the brightest=

and the darkest beards appeared on the darkest type of flower.

For readers who are familiar with the lack of interaction between the
purple inhibitor "I" and the corresponding aril pathways (see TWOI for
details) I should point out that  the inhibitor affecting beard color doe=
s
seem to act differently.  It is MUCH easier to put a tangerine beard on a=
n
arilbred than get tangerine in the petal cells.
 =

To aspiring hybridizer's --

I don't want to discourage questions because I learned so much from
experienced hybridizers when I was getting started, but NOTHING can
substitute for growing and observing seedlings.  I consider the thousands=

that I discarded on the road to my first introduction as important as the=

hundred newer ones from which I may select a '98 introduction.

Sharon McAllister
73372.1745@compuserve.com
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