Crossing two var. albas

[orchideric]

The genes are responsible for enzymes which allow molecules to follow a pathway resulting in pigment. Think of each enyzme as the step of a ladder. If the step is broken, the molecule is stopped in its tracks. If the alba parents have the same broken step, then all progeny will be alba.

If the alba parents have different genes affected, the progeny will be variously colored in the first generation. Essentially a molecule can go up one ladder, get to the broken rung, and cross over to the other parent's ladder making its way to the top - a pigment. If that is the case there there will be standard Mendelian segregation in the next generation.

In general most of the alba violacea are from a limited original gene pool and are probably rather uniform genetically. But as always, buyer beware.

Hope that helps, Eric

[orchideric]

Oops, I forgot - Brooke, gorgeous clone!

Eric

[Brooke]

Eric it is not a clone but seed grown from two blue vios. I raised it from a small seedling.

Brooke

[Jerry Delaney]

Rob, your post took me back 30 some years ago when the following question appeared on a genetics exam.
When you breed a homozygous white bull to a homozygous red cow, the gene for red is not completely dominate and the offspring are intermediate in color called "roan". Starting with a pure homozygous white bull and a homozygous red cow, how many generations will it take to produce a herd of cattle that breed true "roan"?
It was a lot of fun whatching the puzzled look on a lot of other students faces!

[orchideric]

Dear Brooke,

Your plant is a clone. Every unique individual is a clone. The term is casually used to refer to a clone that has been mass-propagated but that is not the actual meaning. In general horticulture, people use the term cultivar. Thus you talk about a daylily cultivar. For whatever reason orchid people settled on the term clone instead of cultivar although they are mostly interchangeable (the exception is line bred seed strains which can be cultivars but ot clones).

Having a unique clone is a good thing, not a slant.

Hope that helps, Eric

[littlefrog]

That is a great test question. My students wouldn't have gotten it though... They didn't do well with the orchid question.

Originally Posted by Jerry Delaney

Rob, your post took me back 30 some years ago when the following question appeared on a genetics exam.
When you breed a homozygous white bull to a homozygous red cow, the gene for red is not completely dominate and the offspring are intermediate in color called "roan". Starting with a pure homozygous white bull and a homozygous red cow, how many generations will it take to produce a herd of cattle that breed true "roan"?
It was a lot of fun whatching the puzzled look on a lot of other students faces!

[Brooke]

Dear Eric

In orchidom, as in much of the plant world, the term clone typically refers to the process to mass produce something by mericloning or tissue culture to get the exact plant. I had assumed this was your thinking.

I did not want you or anyone else reading this
Board to think they could run to the local big box store and find this plant.

To clone is to duplicate - I am not a clone nor is this plant.

Brooke

[orchideric]

Sorry Brooke, you are a clone unless you are an identical twin. You take an individual and give it a clonal name to differentiate that individual from other clones. "To clone" is using the word as a verb, not a noun. That many people misuse the word is of no concern to me.

Go ahead and take offense at my complimenting the clone you have. I really don't care. It is still a lovely thing. Eric

[Brooke]

Thank you for correction. I am truly enlightened by your teachings.

Brooke

[orchideric]

Dear Brooke,

Glad we are in the same groove. The one that really get me is an orchid spike. Except for a few species of Bulbophyllum what people call spikes (flowers sessile) are racemes (flowers on individual stalks - in orchids comprising the pedicel and ovary). That and orchid pods. Except for Vanilla and a few of its relatives orchids have capsules (dehiscent), not pods (indehiscent).

I once heard a fantastic lecture by Buckminster Fuller. He asked how we expected our kids to learn science when we told them that the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening when we have known for almost 500 years that the sun does not rise and does not set.

My best, Eric