Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Fertility, 0 by bettydee

bettydee wrote:
Brugmansia species/natural hybrids are divided into two groups: The B. aurea Group (aurea, insignis, suaveolens, versicolor, and x candida (aurea x versicolor) and the B. arborea Group ( arborea, sanguinea, vulcanicola, and x flava - (arborea x sanguinea). The species within each group are compatible and readily hybridize with each other. Normally, members of the aurea Group are not compatible with members of the arborea Group. Apparently, with a lot of manipulation and chemical intervention, it is possible to get a few crosses that grow. Now this is where I got in trouble with Eric, by saying that the crosses were sterile. He says they are not very fertile. To make them fertile takes a lot of intervention. As far as most hybridizers and growers go, if the seeds were to grow, they would be sterile because we wouldn't be using the chemicals it takes to make them fertile. In the animal kingdom, if you cross a horse and a donkey, you get a sterile male mule. In fact with most animal interspecies mating, you end up with sterile offspring because of the differences in chromosome numbers. I know, I'm rambling, but I need to relate to what I'm most familiar. What Eric is suggesting/doing is to crossbreed a member from one group with a member of the other. You may be right in blaming the difference in chromosomal numbers as the reason for sterility, or near so. I don't know enough about plant genetics to hazzard an explanation. I could guess, but that's all.

This my only photo of some seedpods (Audrey Hepburn). These were just a few of a whole slew of pods she produced one winter. She must have had almost 20 pods. Notice that the pod at the top is not full. Two of the pods that ripened later had all the corky capsules, but most of them were empty. I didn't pollinate any of those pods. I had bees and a sphinx moth or two in the greenhouse that winter. I"ve never peeled an entire seedpod in order of pod placement to see where the plumpest seeds are. I recall reading an old post in which someone said said size was not an indicator of plant size, health or beauty in bloom.