HYB: Source of pink gene

Fred, that is a particularly interesting comment from Jean Stevens.

If the speculation I have attributed to Keppel is correct, the near or
entirely simultaneous appearence in England, New Zealand and the US is not at
all surprising.  The speculation would also suggest all three appearances were
of the same gene, as all the beardeds present in all three locales had the
same ultimate origins.

The introduction of the factor dating from 1910-1912 and spreading from there
would have been dated by when crosses from KASHMIR WHITE and to a much lesser
extent, MISS WILLMOTT, I believe, began to accumulate the dosage levels toward
the tttt four-plex level required to be obvious, provided the right dosage
level of the carotenoid pigments were also present.

There are so many "if" chances involved it almost seems miraculous the
emergence occured that quickly .  There is only a thirty-year gap from the
introduction of KASHMIR WHITE to Hall's 1942 "pink bud" year.

Perhaps this points to how aggressively the use of the new tetraploids
actually occurred, even though the great majority of seedlings appears still
to have been diploid during much of the period in question.

W. R. DYKES, one of the known carriers of "t", appears in the 1939 *Check
List* as introduced in 1926 by the Orpington Nurseries, although it may have
been used in breeding before that date.  Its ancestry is only speculation, but
its dominant "white" (non-blue) status indicates it traces back presumably to
one of Foster's whites.

The breeders Jean Stevens is known to have used included several that
presumably trace back either to KASHMIR WHITE or MISS WILLMOTT as well.  The
Mohr-Mitchell SHASTA was a "W1" white self, although it appears in the Check
List without pedigree.  This California white made its way to New Zealand
rather promptly.

GUDRUN, a posthumus (I assume, since it is credited to K. Dykes, 1930)
seedling introduced from the work of Dykes himself is also without annotated
pedigree, but as a dominant white it also can be presumed to trace back to the
same origin.  An English introduction, it made its way both to the US and to
New Zealand rather promptly as well.

The presence of the factor in some of the Sass irises may have been due to
ARGENTINA, another dominant white.

One could speculate endlessly, but since so many of the pedigrees are hidden,
some quite purposely I think, it would take DNA fingerprinting of a sort to
know for sure.  Some of the sequencing tools for establishing full genomes
would have to be used.  If one knew the makeup of the enzyme behind "t" it
would be possible to establish its DNA condon sequence.  Then it would be an
interesting, but costly, exercise to trace the sequence back in extant irises.
None of this is likely ever to happen.

One could express dismay that so many of the significant early irises involved
have disappeared from view.

Neil Mogensen  z 7 western NC mountains

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