GYNOGENESIS TO BYPASS CROSSING BARRIERS BETWEEN DIPLOID AND TETRAPLOID DIANTHUS SPECIES.

The glasshouse carnation cultivars are in general diploid. Recently, tetraploid interspecific hybrids of the Diantini type have been developed. These hybrids show new flower colour patterns and combine early flowering with a high production. An interesting Dianthus species, Dianthus trifasciculatus, showing unusual axillary shoot formation and regular branching of the flower stem is also tetraploid.

Efforts were made to transfer the interesting characters of the tetraploid into the diploid carnations through crossing. The offspring obtained was triploid which prohibited necessary further backcrosses. In order to bypass this barrier, it was attempted to produce diploid plants from the tetraploids by gynogenesis, and to use them as crossing parents at the diploid level.

In this poster the results of a preliminary study are presented.