Pretty rare. I only know of one individual that sourced seeds and I was intending to try to get some for my breeding project but got confirmation that grafted digna died on virginiana rootstock when exposed to cold, and I have no greenhouse. I assumed the same would be true for the californica, and the source has also said the germination rates are abysmal. Probably needs to be passed through the digestive system of an extinct groundsloth.
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could always try swallowing them whole yourself!
All the range maps I can find show it cutting off somewhere in eastern Texas, to varying degrees including some of central Texas:
Hereās the source for the earlier map:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-97121-6_11
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Yes, that definitely seems more accurate! I know they extend to at least as far west as I-35ā¦not sure about beyond that? Not sure what the constraint is hereā¦maybe ground that gets too rocky and alkaline?
I used to have some hybrids between Lima Beans and Phaseolus polystachios. They bloomed pretty well, and rather early after sprouting, but they never set a single pod. Perhaps I shouldāve been more patient with them.
The Hybrid Jaboticabas (Red and Roxa, seemingly two separate hybrids between M. cauliflora and M. aureana) are said to be as tasty as the parents and precocious, blooming in 3 years instead of the usual 8. Thereās a lot of diversity to explore among the Jaboticabas, and they do well in containers (although they like a water dish underneath). I killed my M. coronata by transplanting it, but I have other species to cross, and my red hybrid is bearing its first fruit (the Yellow one is entering the blooming stage).
Iāve been meaning to re-attempt Burbankās Strawberry x Raspberry, but my raspberry died (after several years). My Alpine Strawberry is still alive, and Iām getting some raspberries soon. Untitled Document
Schoenerās Rose x Apple hybrid is intriguing, and seems counterintuitive to me (especially concerning the disparate haploid numbers), but Iād like to attempt it as well. Untitled Document
Given similar haploid counts and a shared branch of the family tree, thereās plenty of Rosa, Rubus and Fragaria species to test for hybrids, especially among the diploids.
And regarding animalsā¦ Chicken x Pheasant seems to have partial fertility (I think the females are fertile?). As a pet project, Iād love to introgress Melanistic Mutant ringnecks into Black Sumatra chickens, for a hybrid breed with minimal pheasant genetics, but visible pheasant influence in the phenotype. I think the results could be very interesting.
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Jaboticabas are also in the family with Pomegranate, chilean guava, and crape myrtle. Iād LOVE to have those guys be more cold hardy.
I would really love to see a study on why Sorbus is so promiscuous in the rose family freely hybridizing multiple others. That trait would be lovely to find elsewhere.
Pomegranate is in Myrtales, family Lythraceae (most myrtles are Myrtaceae). Iām curious to see if such a hybrid could be done. Iām not aware of interfamilial hybrids in plants, just animals (always those darned Galliformes! 
).
For more cold-hardy myrtles, thereās Feijoa and Luma. It might be worthwhile to cross either of those with each other and with Chilean Guava.
- Edit: for more distantly related hybrids, Michurin sterilized the pollen of the female parent (reproductively sterile, but chemically active) and mixed it with fertile pollen from the male parent, for one to open the way for the other. Mentor pollination.
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The impetus of this thread was the successful grafting of a pomegranate onto a crape myrtle. The thought was if thereās enough compatability across families, familial structure may be close enough to push some grafting and breeding. My luma on crape myrtle graft did not take so far, but weāll see if it magically regenerates lol.
Despite the common name, Crape Myrtle is also a Lythracean.
But thereās another point of inquiryā¦ Somatic Hybrids! Iām fascinated by the concept, and wonder if it could cross family boundaries.
I donāt know if most people would consider Somatic Hybrids as GMOās, given that they require messing with the cells in a lab, but theyāre very different from transgenics in that the resulting cells (if closely related enough) would consist of the full and separate genomes of both parent stocks, growing as a single non-chimeric organism. There is a natural precedent for this in Allopolyploid species (the Triangle of U - Wikipedia being a prime example), which are the result of a natural fusion event between unreduced gametes of separate species. For Somatic Hybrids, they strip the cell wall with an enzyme (Āæcellulase?), fuse āem with an electric shock and culture the results. Iāve read of it being done with Tomato+Potato ( https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2FBF02906548.pdf ), among others, but I think more promising results could be achieved with vegetatively propagated plants.
If I had the resources, Iād love to cross the following:
Onion x Garlic (though itās already been done by pollen)
Ulluco x Madeira Vine
Colocasia x Xanthosoma
Alocasia x Cyrtosperma
Arracacha x Celeriac
and also Strawberry x Raspberry
If the species being fused are too distant, the result is usually a nearly pure specimen of one parent, with some random genes from the other.
Edit: Also Radish x Turnip. Iād like to try them by pollen soon.
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Believe it or not, I have tried in the opposite direction, osage pollen into a fig. I wasnāt trying to make a hybrid, instead trying to induce apomictic seeds based on an old Russian research paper, didnāt work.
Osage blooms a few weeks ahead of when caprifigs are ripening pollen. So you would have to source pollen from a much warmer location, or store it somehow for a year. That would be the way to go though, figs have a gene that makes them ripen without pollination which can only be passed by the pollen parent. So if a cross did succeed with osage as the pollen parent the results would require pollination, and the fig wasp is so highly specialized it most likely wonāt do the job on whatever weird fruit results. So youād need pollen from what is called a persistent capifig, and they are rarer than hens teeth.
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On ourfigs Iāve seen people sticking a sharpened stick coated in pollen into a fig. Regarding stored pollen, pollen can be stored for ages if itās done properly. Mix it with a bit of powdered sugar then apply.
That might have been meā¦ Pollen on a stick didnāt work very well, it gets rubbed off when pushing the stick through the ostiole.
I switched over to putting a stick into the ostiole to clear the way, pushing in a whole stamen and then flicking the fig so it bounces around inside.
A syringe also works, I just melted the end of the plastic and drew it out like a pipette, then packed a little pollen in the end and puffed it inside. Mixing it with anything seems risky, because the flowers are internal mold and bacteria spores can proliferate. About 20% or so ended up dropping before ripe, or souring even though I was very careful to work as clean as possible.
Was your osage into fig attempt before the updated procedure or after?
From a prominent kiwi researcher I got the following on pollen storage: āA better alternative would be to collect, dry and freeze anthers from the desired males and then use the pollen on the anthers when it is needed. This will give you much greater flexibility for your crosses. When stored at 0 degrees F, Actinidia pollen will remain viable for 7 to 10 years. I can provide you with information about this if you are interested. I found it helpful to add a small amount of powdered sugar (sucrose + corn starch) to the stored pollen when making crosses as this will promote pollen tube germination.ā
I think youād want the osage as the seed parent in this crossing, but why not try both ways if possible?
Lots of fun ideas here.
Iāve wondered if aronia could be crossed with big sweet pomes like pears, Asian pears, or apples, to get things that are sweet and also purple. It might also be worth trying with amelanchier, which are delicious, although small and perishable. These crosses between bushes and trees might also produce convenient-sized small trees.
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Yes, graft translocation is a thing, however, it is a bit more specific than you seem to think. First, look up lamarckism and find out a bit about the topic. Huge caution that a bunch of bafflegab is out there so put some time in to dig out the kernels of truth. After that, look up epigenetics and find out what it does.
We have white fruited tomatoes. We have red fruited tomatoes. The carotenoid biopath is moderately complex. You can find plenty of research papers describing production of various chemicals such as phytoene, lycopene, and beta carotene which give a tomato characteristic color. Now here is your graft translocation example. If you graft a white fruited tomato on top of a red fruited root stock, the white fruited tomato will produce pinkish/red fruit. How does this happen? It has not been explained other than to suggest graft transference of chemicals that make red fruit. Now here is where it gets kinky. Save seed from that pinkish/red fruit produced by a white fruited tomato grown on a red fruited rootstock. Plant the seed and voila, they will produce red fruited tomatoes. It takes 2 generations of growing seed before the white fruited trait shows back up.
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dont remember the name or where i saw it but there was a cross of hawthorn and aronia being sold. i have shipova pear growing on aronia in the yard i got from cricket hill nursery a few years ago.
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And it would be nice to cross loquat with something that blooms in spring and ripens in summer or fall, like a normal Rosaceae family plant. Loquat trees are pretty hardy, but their habit of blooming in fall and trying to grow their fruits over the winter limits the climates where they can be productive.
Flowering quinceās gorgeous scarlet flowers would be even more impressive on a tree, and it would be nice if the fruits were sweeter and less hard, more like a pear, Asian pear, or apple.
And medlar could be crossed with something, for people who think regular medlar isnāt weird enough. Maybe loquat, just to see what youād get.
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Why couldnāt you take a larger fruiting quince, and graft cuttings of flowering quince all over the branches??
That would be quite a show!
Rosaceae Intergeneric Hybrids.pdf (443.9 KB)
I finally managed to upload this document! The website where I originally found it stopped working for me, so Iām glad I saved it. Also relevant to a prior thread where I intended to post it:
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Nice!
On an unrelated note, has anyone ever tried grafting eleagnus on privet?
It was almost 10 years ago, but iirc I used a syringe. Is was easy to collect a good amount of osage pollen, think I actually pulled out the plunger and poured it in that way, might have left the horse needle on also, which doesnāt really work well so thereās one potential mistake. And at the time I didnāt really know what stage immature figs were receptive to pollination either. Much smaller than I thought, the plastic tipped syringe actually helped a lot to understand that. The entrance to the cavity seems to open once receptive and lets the weak plastic tube pass through, the entrance would then become blocked again. I didnāt notice that with the stick at first, but as long as the stick (stripped black cherry twigs actually) is narrow enough you will be able to get an idea of whether most are at the right stage or not based on how much resistance there is.
I am keeping my fingers crossed for some pollen from persistent caprifigs this year so I can dry the pollen, which I donāt think I can do in a sterile way, but that wouldnāt matter for mulberry and osage.