Re: SPEC:VERSICOLOR:exploring

From: Dennis Kramb <dkramb@badbear.com>

>From: "Dan & Marilyn Mason" <dmason@rainyriver.Lakeheadu.ca>
>
>I spent a couple hours in a wild stand of I. Versicolors.

You lucky devil!!


>The plants were growing in 6 - 10 inches of water, in a
>large puddle in the lowest part of a field. The crowns and
>bottoms of the plants have been under water for more than a
>month. The plants were thriving. Periodic flooding must help
>supress competition from grasses and weeds. Perhaps flooding
>also gives the irises an advantage over borers, drowning
>many and restricting the rest to the upper parts of the
>plants.

Absolutely correct....borers rarely threaten irises submerged.


>I've seen a few 4 petaled flowers on one of my SDB's this
>spring, and a 2 petaled flower on a Setosa seedling a couple
>days ago. Both of these had symetrical flowers. But this 5
>petaled Versicolor will be something to watch and try
>crossing next year, to see if the seedlings carry this
>trait.  Could this five petaled selection be a natural
>tetraploid, or how about a "pentaploid?" The size of the
>flower was no larger than that of the flowers with three of
>everything, just more full, from the extra petals.

According to my books, versicolors are natural tetraploids.  The only
pentaploids I've heard of were all chemically induced in labs.

The extra petals seems to be a relatively common freak of nature in
mostvarieties of irises.  The general consensus seems to be that it is
produced by environmental factors, not genetics.  But if yours turns out to
repeatedly bloom with 5 of everything...then you definitely have something
special.

Thanks so much for sharing your adventures with us.  I, for one, am very
envious!

Dennis Kramb; dkramb@badbear.com
Cincinnati, Ohio USA; USDA Zone 6; AIS Region 6
Member of AIS, ASI, HIPS, SIGNA, SLI, & Miami Valley Iris Society
Primary Interests: ABs, REBs, LAs, Native Ohio SPEC and SPEC-X hybrids
(Check out my web page at http://www.badbear.com/dkramb/home.html)



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