Floral Treats - wide crosses

Boyce Tankersley btankers@chicagobotanic.org
Tue, 25 May 2010 07:10:02 PDT
I find this discussion of Iris pseudacorus very interesting. When we
were researching the literature for the invasive species risk analysis
we discovered this species actually has a number of races (I am not sure
this is the correct term) within in it with different chromosome
numbers. 

Phenotypically, they all look identical to the human eye - and they are
all mixed up in commerce. 

One of the hypothesis explaining why this 'species' has been so
successful in naturalizing native habitats is this genetic variability.
If one set of chromosome numbers doesn't provide the adaptive
characteristics apparently sometimes a different set will.

Like Jim Waddick in Kansas City, we have at last broken out of a cold
damp period and are enjoying some warm weather. Some of Jim Shields
Crinum crosses are in flower and a dark pink Hippeastrum hybrid. Both
are planted against the south facing side of my home where the winter
soil temperatures are moderated by the relatively warm basement wall.

Boyce Tankersley
Director of Living Plant Documentation
Chicago Botanic Garden
1000 Lake Cook Road
Glencoe, IL 60022
tel: 847-835-6841
fax: 847-835-1635
email: btankers@chicagobotanic.org

I grow Iris 'Sea Krill' which I think is an I. pseudacorus cross. But I
don't really know anything about its ancestry. Can any one fill me in? 


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