xAmarygia

jim lykos jimlykos@bigpond.com
Sat, 06 Aug 2011 06:23:08 PDT
Hi Michael,

You have asked some intriguing  questions about the outcome of the 
intergeneric cross between Brunsvigia josephinae and Amaryllis - and what 
sort of backcrosses can be achieved.  A very thorough paper on the outcome 
of  this intergeneric cross is found in Vol 63,2009 , pages 75 to 100 of 
Herbertia.
Basically as you have found there is little colour variation with  the F1 
cross (xAmarygia) with all flowers being a rich magenta colour with varying 
degrees of reddish wash in the centre of tepals and  some white markings 
near the centre of some flowers.

It is uncertain how many backcrosses were necessary to get the full colour 
variations of vigorous Amaryllis like xAmarygias that we see in collections, 
but it is clear that most F1 Amarygias have sterile pollen and that F1 back 
crosses to Brunsvigia as a seed or pollen parent produce mainly aborted 
seeds and occasionally small weak seedlings.  However F1 Amarygias will 
backcross with Amaryllis.
I have not been able to create any seedlings from  F1x F1 crosses and I have 
yet to be certain about what an F2 xAmarygia looks like . I think the 
process that produced our current colour range of Amarygias was due to 
crossing the F1 Amarygia with Amaryllis belladonna colour varieties, with 
further backcrosses with the progeny.

My view is that crosses between F3, F4 generations etc usually have 
seedlings that are super fertile. In making these crosses using a Brunsvigia 
pollen parent will produce myriad's of small seeds from the Amaryllis or 
xAmarygia seed parent resulting in vigorously germinating seedlings. The 
reverse cross with Brunsvigia as the seed parent still has a poorer outcome 
with very few seeds produced and almost all seedlings usually damping off by 
the second year.
I have found that shape, colour and size of flowers can be modified by 
selective crosses using  x Amarygias from different Brunsvigia/xAmarygia 
parents, otherwise the outcome is usually offspring with little variation in 
colour or shape.
When you start to breed xAmarygia using parents that have twisted, 
undulating  or elongated sepals you start to see part of the expression of 
the Brunsvigia genetics, other desirable factors include small and large 
sized flowers and extra floriferousness and these outcomes are mainly 
obtained and extended by working on hybrids between different coloured and 
shaped xAmarygis's.

Cheers

Jim Lykos
Blue Mountains Sydney Aust.




Summary:




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Homick" <michaelhomick@gmail.com>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2011 10:06 AM
Subject: [pbs] xAmarygia


>I just noticed in the garden that the xAmarygia are starting to push buds
> through the ground and it got me to pondering a question. The cross was
> between a *Brunsvigia josephinae *and *Amaryllis belladonna.* Other than
> flower color variation the form is very uniform between all the plants
> growing here. (20+ clones) I am sure that we are growing F3, F4 or further
> generations from the original crosses. Did the F2 or later generations 
> ever
> exhibit more of the *Brunsvigia* form? If not why would the
> *Brunsvigia*genes not express themselves more in some of the progeny
> of future
> generations? Has backcrossing to *Brunsvigia* been attempted? Time to do
> some reading of back issues of Herbertia and other periodicals as well as
> PBS archive searching.
> All the best, Michael Homick
> Stevinson, (Central Valley), California
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