[pbs] Allium TOW - Hybrids
Antennaria at aol.com
Antennaria at aol.com
Sun Mar 9 21:28:02 EST 2003
On the PBS wiki Allium page, I invite you to take a look at the "Allium
Hybrids" subpage at:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pbs/pbswiki/index.php/Allium%20hybrids
Of particular note, I placed an image of an Allium cernuum x unknown parent
that is very unique and lovely. A discussion of Allium hybrids could get
very long, but I'd like to make a few comments.
1. It seems extraordinary to me that so few cases of natural hybridization
are recorded to occur in the wild, given that Allium is such a huge genus.
About the best known case in literature is the Flora of the USSR which
reports on intergradation between the two blue species A. coeruleum and A.
caesium. Thad Howard spoke, in personal correspondance, of finding
intermediates between the Texas endemic Allium coryi (yellow) and Allium
drummondii (pink, red, to rarely white) where their range overlapped.
2. A tremendous amount of work has been done studying the genus Allium, not
because of ornamental onions, but because of their importance as a world
vegetable crop. It's been shown that species that are very different
taxonomically (species in different sections of the genus) are more likely to
hybridize than those that are closely related. I'm not sure how much of this
I believe as certainly closed related species like nutans, senescens,
albidum, angulosum, etc., all hybridize with reckless abandon. But then
again, there are documented successful crosses between such unlikely things
as A. cepa (onion) x A. senescens.
3. In the garden, once one grows enough species, once critical mass of
genetic diversity has been reached, it seems that the self-sown hybrids
appear with such frequency that I'm loathe to throw away all of the thousands
of seedlings that appear in the paths between my allium beds, for fear of
throwing away something different. I missed taking a picture this summer of
one such "franken-onion", a bizzare Allium cernuum hybrid... it had a stocky
inflorescence of deep pink flowers but in addition to the florets held aloft
on long dropping pedicels, it had lots of flowers custered tight in the
center as well. I showed it to a friend and fellow allium fancier, and she
laughed out loud seeing this weird plant... weird but fun.
4. The potential for developing new, interesting, and beautiful allium
hybrids has been largely ignored. There has been a focus on the developing
section Melanocrommyum hybrids (the giant "ball onions"), which includes such
things as 'Globus', 'Globemaster', 'Gladiator', etc. However, no one has
bothered much with the rest of the genus, particularly with the summer
growing rhizomatous onions. The potential is tremendous.
Mark McDonough Pepperell, Massachusetts, United States
antennaria at aol.com "New England" USDA Zone 5
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