Morphological and cytological evaluation of progeny obtained from pollination of Fragaria x ananassa Duch. with Potentilla spp.

Abstract

In the second year of growth, 131 (of 159) progeny from pollination of F. X ananassa with Potentilla spp. were examined for morphological characters such as leaf shape and lay-out, the ability to produce runners, flowering, the color of flower petals, sex, ability to develop torus and viability of seeds. On the basis of these characters, among which the ability of expansion of the fleshy receptacle (torus) serves to distinguish representatives of the genus Fragaria from Potentilla species, the progeny from this intergeneric pollination was considered matroclinous (850/o produce fleshy fruits and the remaining plants also show Fragaria traits). Matroclinous plants preserve traits of the maternal species, but show a variability of these characters within the species, thus;, they are not identical with the varie.ties from which they arose. Matroclinous plants differ widely in ploidy. Among the 153 examined individuals, tetraploids were most numerously represented (41%), next came penta- and hexaploids (36%), octoploids (8%), mixoploids and aneuploids (6,5%), triploids (5.5%) and others. From among 199 matroclinous plants, 77 produce relatively highly viable seeds in open pollination, 33 gave seeds of low viability and 8 produced completely sterile seeds. Preliminary examination of the progeny of matroclinous plants seems to indicate that it is possible to obtain a next fertile generation.