As follow up to a blog I posted on September 1st 2013 and to satisfy my own curiosity, I conducted an experiment where I tissue cultured the flower stalk of the bloom pictured in that blog . That bloom was on a flower stalk that also was filled with 6 petal blooms and no 5 petal blooms. . Click here to see the original image and discussion.
The above and below images are the outcome. Not only were there no 7 petal bloom there were no 6 petal blooms (except for one bloom). All that was produced on this plant being shown and the other plant produced was a nice Mauna Loa 5 petal dicot plant. It appears the variability in petal count that occurs in non- double or semi-double blooms is just a variable that exists, I guess similar to the chimeras bloom (or for that matter any African violet bloom) where shade or color variance which occurs is the result of environmental influences such as heat, light and water condition and not a function of genetics.
As is evident all but one bloom is a 5 count. There is one that has six which is typical with this cultivar. This is the first blooming of this plant. Conclusion; this observed characteristic is not a genetic trait like a double or semi-double bloom that can easily be breed in or out of a plant.
Now please note, the above images and text were prepared about 2 weeks ago. The Image below appeared a few days ago prior to the 1st of December. (few days prior to publication of this posting)
There it is again (above), a 7 petal bloom. Now my conclusion has not changed but the question is can individual plant lines within a cultivator have a greater propensity to express a unique trait (like an occasional 7 petal bloom) over a different line in the same cultivator?
