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Further notes on seedlings originating from open pollination seed collected from ‘Holden Cloth’s F1,F2, and F3.
As background to this discussion I will quickly note the beginnings and continuation of the rather haphazard program I have under way. A few seeds (about thirty with about twelve germinations) were noticed one year after the discovery of a seed on a cut stalk of `Holden Clough' by Roy Davidson and Phil Edinger. These seeds were collected from a long row of the parent plant and there were no more than one or two seeds in each pod.
From the plants of these seeds were the two clones named for the two discoverers. Although `Roy Davidson' sets few if any, open pollinated seed, `Phil Edinger' and the other clones that developed from this batch of seed, set open pods which still contained few seeds per pod: one, two, or maybe three. These seeds were collected and germinated to give an F2 generation which in turn also produced open pollinated seed, and in fact, there were two or three full pods of seed. These germinated and were growing well but unfortunately I was attacked by a bad spell of flu in midsummer and these seedlings browned off because they were not watered sufficiently during the hot weather at that time. However, none died. They were lined out this fall (1991) and are all alive, but I cannot expect first year bloom since the plants were set back in their development by the drying-off period.
Up to this time I had collected and grown only open pollinated seed. Because each generation resembled Iris pseudacorus (undoubtedly one parent of `Holden Clough') it has been surmised that the seedlings were back-crosses by the bees to this parent plant. All of the flowers have been yellow with much less brown veining than `Holden Clough' and the F2 has even less veining than the F1. It happened that the year of the National Iris Convention which was held in this region. I had one clone planted in the convention beds (which later was named `Phil Edinger') and it was some 300 to 400 feet from the one plant of Iris pseudacorus that I had that year. It seems unlikely that the bees could have carried the pollen to this isolated plant that far since there were hundreds of flowers in between to keep them busy. The seedlings from this plant (and it set several pods) bloomed in their time and looked very much like the flowers from plants of similar history growing near to the plant of Iris pseudacorus.
I have had only one plant of Iris pseudacorus growing in the garden here. It is a plant that Dave Niswonger grew from seed and sent as a plant to me in a previous year. It has super flowers but poor increase, usually with two or only one increase remaining after bloom each year. So I have not had an excess of bloom from this iris in any year. This year, for some reason, it bloomed and was done by the time the "Clough family" came into bloom. All of the F1 and F2 plants set seed anyway. So the seedlings I have are necessarily not from pollinations made by the bees with Iris pseudacorus as the pollen parent. Yet all are yellow.
This year I decided it was time I did a bit of actual work with this family of seedlings. I got in Sarah Tiffney's plant, `Holden's Child' (from "hands-on" self pollinated `Holden Clough'). Sarah got two seedlings from these seed and both were a "dark red purple." None of my open pollinated seedlings were anything but yellow.
So I self pollinated nearly all the flowers of `Holden Clough' (the pollen didn't look very good) and got no seed at all. I intercrossed the F1 and F2 groups of my seedlings and got no seed at all. However the same plants did produce open pollinated seed: I'm just going to have to try again next year.
With this closer association with the "Clough Family" I noted some startling features between the two generations. F1 has pollen. It also (all plants) has cascading foliage. F2- none of the plants had any pollen and all of the foliage was stiffly erect! There was much less veining in these F2 flowers, all were yellow, and two had bright orange-yellow signals. These F2 pods could not have been pollinizations since the flowers had no pollen. They had to have been pollinized by pollen of `Holden Clough' (one clump nearby), or with the masses of FI parents that were nearby. I didn't get these seed for they opened during the "indisposition" so I didn't get any of this year's crop gathered, but I did have the seedlings from the previous year (first year bloom) and they are the ones that won't bloom next year.
Another feature noticed this year is that all the seedlings carry the typical veined crescent signal of Iris pseudacorus (less so on the F2 generation!). This is evidently true of all pseudacorus hybrids since the two plants introduced in Japan from the cross of Iris pseudacorus and Iris ensata (Japanese Iris) also have these typical signals.
Still another surprise was in store this year. Several years ago we received a plant under the title "miniature pseudacorus." It rather looked like what the name suggested so I never examined it closely before. This year I was intrigued by a resemblance to the Clough children though smaller in plant and flower. Being curious, I put pollen of `Phil Edinger' on this "miniature pseudacorus" AND GOT A SET POD. It was also the first time that I had noticed that this "miniature pseudacorus" did not set open seed pods so typical of Iris pseudacorus. So it is undoubtedly a hybrid of some kind. The seed looked good enough when the pod was opened-now we shall see if it germinates.
I can't help but wonder if the `Holden Clough' that Sarah Tiffney has and the one that we have here are actually the same clone. Why should a self pollination give flowers of a "deep red purple" from one plant and only yellow flowers from another? Not even crosses of the F1 and F2 in the yellow colored seedlings showed any sign of purple coloring and it seems to me chat interbreeding the two should give some indication of that color. Perhaps the F3 will give some hints. I shall just have to wait and see.
(The following additions by the author came in a letter dated December 27, 199l Ed.)
Some features of the Holden Clough family that I have just noted befuddles the probable parentage of `Holden Clough and its seedlings even more. As a basis for the following observation that I have just made, our weather in December has been cold for us. Several mornings down as low as 27 degrees-so plants should be showing the full aspect of their tendency toward dormant at this time.
‘Holden Clough' is evergreen here. The tips of the leaves are brown but they are green almost to the tips. The F1 seedlings are evergreen. The F2 seedlings are mostly dormant; the fully grown leaves are brown but there is a short fan of leaves down in the original fan that is still green.
This puts a doubt in my mind of a parentage of Iris chrysographes x Iris pseudacorus. I've never seen any other feature that would convince me of the parentage that Roy Davidson and the `Holden Clough' parentage correction in the 1984 R&I (page one) suggests as I. foetidissima x I. pseudacorus, but this "evergreen bit" does give credence to that parentage because I. foetidissima is decidedly evergreen. Iris chrysographes is decidedly dormant.
I wonder what a little laboratory research will turn up.
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