AusBonsai

Greetings Bonsai addicts!! Has anyone on this forum crossed two existing species to create a new one? If so, what is the process involved in having it registered and authenticated? Is it a long process? Is it costly? Which particular body do you contact to do this?

Many thanks


Hygiene tip of the day

Dynamic lifter should never be eaten uncooked!!

That is known as Hybridisation, not the creation of a new species. As far as i know, it is impossible for man to create a new species.

Some species throw off "sports" sometime. This means a particular branch will have a different characteristic. This is how things like "corky bark" varieties can come about. If a tree of yours sports and there is nothing like it already in existence, you can have its name, followed by a word of your choosing. For instance, Ray Nesci has some trident maples that have different characteristics due to seedling variation. One example is Acer buergeranum "Sparky". Another he has developed is known as Acer buergeranum "Nesci". By the way, both are great plants!

I am not sure where to register the names, and this is something i also want to know, as i sometimes grow from seed, and i constantly look out for different sports on trees etc.

JayC

This is something i wondered also. Every few years my cacti & succulents supprise me with something
a whole lot diffrent from the others. So if someone does know, keep me posted.


Tip for the day, its not dead, till its dead.

We are on a roll with our young horticulturests tonight.
Excellent advice JC. I was talking about this with Jarrod the other day in chat and started to doubt what I had read in Deborah Koreshoff's book about branch sports that cuttings could be taken off to create a variation to the species.
I am unsure if hybridisation is the right word for this though. I may be wrong but I relate that to seed variation or even cross polination.

Bretts wrote:We are on a roll with our young horticulturests tonight.
Excellent advice JC. I was talking about this with Jarrod the other day in chat and started to doubt what I had read in Deborah Koreshoff's book about branch sports that cuttings could be taken off to create a variation to the species.
I am unsure if hybridisation is the right word for this though. I may be wrong but I relate that to seed variation or even cross polination.

Brett, still got a few years to go before im a hort yet!

Do you remember how Peter Adams referred to your pine as a "witches broom"? That is another way that a new cultivar (cultivated variety) can come about. This is a really interesting phenomenon.

Cuttings taken of sported branches often do keep those characteristics. That is how sao to me azaleas came about. Sometimes, those azaleas (which aren't meant to flower) revert back in a single part of the plant, and a flower can be sent up. It needs to be pruned back otherwise the leaves that grow from that part of the plant will enlarge, and the regular azalea will out-compete the sao to me, and it will die back. The form of trident maple that has the curled leaves and looks like its dried out was also a sport from a branch, according to Clinton Nesci, though i cant remember the name of it. These are cultivars.

Cross pollination is the only way to achieve hybridisation in plants that i am aware of. However, hybridisation can occur within a species (I.E. crossing a red and a yellow rose to create an orange rose) or within a genus, but different species (I.E. Triticale, which is a grain that is a cross between wheat and rye). There are some really odd plants that can hybridise through different genus. The most commonly known is the leyland cypress commonly sold as a hedge labeled as "Leyton Green". When this hybrid came about, horticulturists assumed it would grow to about 40 metres, so they marketed it as a hedge. But because of "Hybrid Vigor", this tree has been found to grow to 20 metres. Hybridisation is alot more complicated than this, due to dominant/recessive genes and other factors, but that is essentially what happens.

Witches Brooms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch%27s_broom

Cultivars: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultivar

Hybridisation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_(biology" )

Hybrid Vigor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_vigor

JayC

There is a process to register 'Plant Breeder's Rights'. There are forms and fees to be paid, tests and planting trials to confirm that the new hybrid is 'true to form'. It is a costly and timely process ... and at the end of the day ... so long as the plant is not being sold commercially - someone else can propagate 'your' plant and give it away/sell it (not under your 'plant breeders name').

A friend has recently looked into this with a consistently small leaved olive. I guess this is why Ray Nesci has not registered his 'Bubble Leaf African Olive'.

At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest ... remember Little Ruby?

And of course there is a story behind the demise of the Italian Alder!

Commercial interests come into play and then impact on the availability of new hybrids!!!

Hi Andrew, what do you mean about the demise of the Italian Alder??? What happened???

andrew ward wrote:And of course there is a story behind the demise of the Italian Alder!

Commercial interests come into play and then impact on the availability of new hybrids!!!