Exerted Stigmas / exposed anthers pre petal development

[tickledtoad]

A few of my TPS lines in the ground this years are showing an interesting characteristic on a very few of the plants. Three of 26 Muruta TPS progeny are blooming, of those three, two of them are exhibiting the entire "guts" of the flower bloom prior to the petals growing to their entire size, let alone transforming overnight from bud to bloom. The stigma and anthers are completely exposed when the buds are still very tiny...a fraction of their full size (In a flower cluster of 10/12 small buds 7/8 will have this "attribute" a week or so prior to the bloom "opening". The petals do fill out and grow, develop color and open, as well a the anthers maturing and casting their pollen...albeit about 5-10 days after the "guts" have been out their for any passing insect (or breeze) to foil my intentions of a more controlled coupling. This is also the case with 2 of the 6 Mount St. Helens TPS progeny of this year.

Questions: "Best" time for hand pollination (if even desirable, due to this specific trait...as these are among the earliest blooming and best looking plants of the varieties)?

Is early bagging a viable option? If so, is there a preferred product to use?

Background, groups,, etc. from which this trait is descended?

If crosses and maintaining this trait for any reason are desirable, are there any specific lines I should work with hand pollination on? In general, Tetraploids or Diploids or specifically any of the following (this years list...if memory serves me at all sitting inside in front of a machine rather that looking at the labeled plants in the garden.

Clones that are progeny of the following TPS lines or other clones with available pollen:
Suytu Vilquina
Landraces
SVG Double Hybrids
Tollocan Fiesta
Yungay
Red, White, and Blue
Quartermaster
Missaukee October
Manistique River
Transitions
Yellow Finn
Nordic JT
Muru
Agrarian Blue
Purple Viking
I know I'm missing a few, but these are the majority.

This years TPS lines:
Squat Orange
Muruta
Mount St. Helens
Howdy Boys
473276
Kern Morn
Hedge Rose
Agrarian Blue
Yellow Finn
As above, I may be missing a couple of lines here as well.


Any and all input is much appreciated

Mount St. Helens (A)

Muruta (C)


As you can see if the pics came through, this plant of Muruta progeny has a bit less exposure of the "guts" on the more immature blooms than the Mount St, Helens. The other Muruta that shows this trait is even more extreme at earlier development size than the Mount St, Helens.

Oh, one last thing, in all cases in which the bloom petals have colored and opened, the petals are white, and the anthers develop a quite dark color early on. Ignore this last sentence...I've just noticed a lavender/light purple group of blooms on a Muruta progeny (see pic if it came through on the edit) with this trait, so I'm assuming that bloom color is not linked to how early ion bud development the anthers and stigma are visible.

tickledtoad (Ron)

[Tom Wagner]

Wow! Lots of TPS lines. Great!

The exerted styles or more correctly...exerted stigmas...offers one a glimpse of how the not so distance ancestral wild species are involved. A clear sign of the wish to outcross.

As long as the flower petals are rather tight the anthers are usually not shedding pollen so crossing is acceptable anytime before that flower's anther shed. I don't bag...if I get enough pollen on it is usually enough to start the cross. I would be curious if you see any pollinating insects on the immature blooms. Mostly the insects are attracted to the open fragrant blooms.

That list should include many with good pollen issues.

I would say a good proportion of those exerted stigma types are descended from andigena types with even some phureja and stenotomum thrown in.

[tickledtoad]

Many thanks for the info Tom, I had half guessed as much...that this trait is from the "wilder" side of the family...the black (or blue skinned) sheep so to speak. As you may have guessed, the blossom age or stigma development in being accepting to a pairing is what I was most interested in...along with which of the black sheep from the family tree may have been the culprits.

You are dead right about insect attention to the more fully open blooms, and even though it appears that Hymenoptera in general has declined considerably in the past few years, I've tried to be attentive to increasing biodiversity in my gardens through collaborative plantings and being sure there are blooming plants of many kinds as attractants, (I use organic and bio-diverse methods...perhaps with a bit of bio-mechanical and lots of spatial considerations tossed in the mix)) so there can still be a fair amount of "arguing" about which insect species gets any given bloom ...so a bud/blossom cluster often has 4 or 5 critters within a couple of inches of each other...giving a bit more activity in places this poor marriage broker may not want it.

Thanks again!

Ron