North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Hal Love" <lovehd@comcast.net>]

Nick,

Since every cell originated from one single cell, every cell will have the
same parental chromosomes, with no differences in the cotelydons. The three
cotelydons is what I recall is called "whorled", something that crops up
occasionally in many dicots. It does not have anything to do with being
triploid. The seedling could still be triploid, but a chromosome count would
be needed to know for sure.

Hal
zn 6 TN


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <leclair@verizon.net>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2005 2:18 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Apple Seedling With 3 Cotelydons


> I have a small apple orchard in Maine and I decided to grow some new trees
from seed. Now, I'm not looking to grow great or exceptional apples; just
ones good enough for cider or cooking.  If the trees don't make good apples,
I'll just top graft them with other varieties.
>
> Right now, I have a little over a hundred seedlings.  Most of them look
like average ordinary antonovka rootstock seedlings with small average
leaves.  Some of them have tiny skinny leaves that look like the ones on
certain small crabapples.
>
> And one of the seedlings has three cotelydons.  This one is almost twice
as tall as the average with much larger and broader leaves.  The leaves also
have much larger teeth than the average leaf.
>
> The third cotelydon folded out from in between the other two "standard"
cotelydons to form a "Y" shape.  The plant is at about the same stage as the
rest of the seedlings with about the same number of leaves, etc., except
everything is larger.
>
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but it is my understanding that a standard apple
tree has 34 chromosomes.
>
> Also, it is my understanding (based on memories of botany class way back
in school) that one of the cotelydons in a dicot has the genes from one of
its parents, while the other cotelydon has the genes from the other parent.
>
> So, if this is the case in this seedling as well as standard dicots, my
seedling should have 51 chromosomes, the same number that triploids have.
>
> So my roundabout question is, does three cotelydons make a triploid?
>
> Also, what are the odds of having good fruit from this tree?
>
> Any info would be helpful.
>
> Thanks,
> -Nick