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It takes a lot of patience to set pods from tetraploid to diploid. But my ratio was far better than Stout’s: about one in ten for H. ‘Hankow’,
and higher for H. littorea and H. ‘Korean’. I do remember the strong doubts during the first year. Would the tetraploid produced pods on
the diploid fulva result in viable seed Would the seeds germinate Would the plants flower
I used H. ‘Ruby Spider’ and H. ‘All American Chief’ extensively in the early years because that was the best material I had at the time.
The resulting plants seem slow to get established and then are vigorous. They are usually dormant to semi-evergreen, and hardy.
H. fulva littorea X H. ‘Igor’ (40 6)
H. fulva ‘Korean’ X H. ‘Octopus Hugs’
(36 5) Polys fairly regularly
H. fulva littorea X H. ‘Igor’ (36 5.5)
H. fulva maculata X H.
‘Wild Horses’ (36 5)
I also have a few seedlings from tetraploid crosses to the triploid H. maculata. This triploid is not as fertile as the diploid fulvas but
occasionally sets a pod with viable seed.
The question of why these crosses of tetraploids and dips are even possible is not one I have explored to any extent. But one possible
answer is that these diploid fulvas quite regularly produce unreduced gametes (mature germ cells). If this is the case, their gametes do not
divide in half during the process of meiosis, remaining at 22 chromosomes, and joining with a tetraploid’s 22 chromosomes. I have only
been able to set pods by crossing tetraploid pollen on to diploids, never the other way around. This suggests that these unreduced
gametes occur only on the diploid pod parent side, the diploid egg cell.
Crossing H. fulva with Tetraploids: The Second Generation
Several questions remain when plants from the first generation crosses actually bloom. Will these plants be fertile Can they be used as
bridge plants to continue an exploration of the fulva-tetraploid gene pool Are they tetraploids I can not distinguish the differences
between tetraploid and diploid pollen through my modest microscope, but these crosses must be tetraploids because they accept
tetraploid pollen so readily in most cases.
I now realize that most of my F2 (the second generation) crosses were with red parents, but other colors are possible as shown by the
seedlings at the bottom of this section. Following are examples of the some of the many seedlings produced from these crosses.
Left:
(H. fulva littorea x
H. ‘All American
Chief’) X H.
‘Skinny Dipping’
(36 7)
(H. fulva littoria x H. ‘Ruby
Spider’) X H. ‘Inky Fingers’ (36 7)
(H. fulva ‘Hankow’ x H. ‘Ruby Spider’) X
H. ‘Web Browser’ (38 10)
(H. fulva ‘Hankow’ x H. ‘All
American Chief’) X H. ‘Robb
Cobb’ (36 8)
(H. fulva ‘Hankow’ x H. ‘All
American Chief”) X (H. ‘Illsworth’ x
H. ‘Canadian Border Patrol’) (38 5)
Sibling of previous seedling.
Polys over 50% (30 6)
Good branching and bud count with traditional
style blooms on H. ‘Godzilla’ X (H. fulva
‘Hankow’ x H. ‘Ruby Spider’) (40 7)
Page 16 Fall 2005 - Winter 2006 AHS Region 2/Great Lakes Newsletter