Osoberry gender identification

I have a row of four osoberry bushes and so far this is the only one to flower. Now the question is what gender is it?

Looks nonbinary :slight_smile: Check for ovary or pollen.

Youā€™ll have to open up a flower and peek inside I think. Hereā€™s a diagram I found that says the female has 5 pistils, male has 15 stamens:

Thus far this season every single wild Osoberry plant Iā€™ve examined has been male. Females appear to be underrepresented in this species so good luck.

This gender bias has been studied. The male Osoberry bushes begin flowering younger and also have a greater longevity compared to females of the species.

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Iā€™ve definitely noticed this as well. In the local old-growth forest park in my neighborhood they line the hiking trails but almost all are male. Just a handful of females among hundreds of males.

Very interesting read. It starts off relatively 1:1 and then skews male as they mature because reproduction compromises the health of the females. Perhaps they naturally hold on to too many fruit and just need to be thinned a bit. I remember watching some videos on YouTube where some folks were chemically-inducing a gender change of a single bud on their marijuana plant for some reason. Maybe doing that to an osoberry bush (1/2 male, 1/2 female) will help it pollinate itself AND keep it from depleting its energy during fruit development. :thinking:

Those kinda look like male stamens to me, but I donā€™t count 15. Maybe they still have some developing to doā€¦

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Thatā€™s male.

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Iā€™m not sure where you live, but if youā€™re in the NW then it should be fairly easy to find a wild female and graft it onto your bushes if you end up with bad luck and they are all male. Iā€™m planning something similar down the line, as I collected seeds from some local bushes to grow out. They were in pots outside all winter to cold strat, but none have sprouted yet this spring.

Iā€™m in St. Louis. The closest osoberry to me is probably at Missouri Botanical Garden if they have it, so that is kinda why I was thinking of chemically changing the gender if that is possible with them. On the bright side my other three have no flowers yet so maybe they are femalešŸ˜€

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Well in that case I might be willing to send some scions at some point! Itā€™s a pleasant fruit with an interesting flavor, but other than being very early itā€™s not my favorite, but I definitely graze on them when they are around.

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On the bright side, being outside of their native range means you could start selectively breeding them for better fruit qualities without having to work against the masses of unselected males all trying to contribute their pollen.

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Jeremybyington

you mentioned using colidol silver to change pollen from male to female

you may also try shocking the plant to stress it
the male might change to female ,
but I do not know I only have known about females changing to males
, and have seem it by accident from stress .

I am not saying to not do it on male (I would try myself and plan to on male grape.)

TO shock try putting a papper bag over flower , and change light cycle inn day time covered.
maybe Girldling a branch or two to see if they change.

Also that Cannabis you speak of they are related to beer hops
as I know the colidal silveer is used to change females to hermaphrodite
the seed they do produce is all female seed so it happens in the next Generation ā€¦

I brought this up before as down the line may be bad for certain crops
(you do not want seeds in hops)

But something like a wine grape you could want seeds ā€“
you want seeds in wine grapes they contribute to polyphenols like tannin.


Of Bunch grapes Grapevine Cutting Sales by Lon Rombough | bunchgrapes.com | Resources | Notes from my Blog
The Late Lon Rombough said this

Notes On The Photos Of The Varieties On My List

In taking photos of as many of my grape varieties as possible this year, 2006, I found that many are distinctly different than usual. In most cases the differences arenā€™t enough to be a problem, though it means the photos may look better than they would have in a ā€œnormalā€ year.

For example, ā€œBronx Seedlessā€ usually has lots of different sizes of berries. Some large ones, some small ones, etc. This year, the berries are quite uniform. So the photo makes the variety look better than usual. The real corker was finding that the ā€œRoyal Seedlessā€ wasnā€™t. Oh, itā€™s the right variety, as Iā€™ve had it for more than 25 years. But this year it has full, normal seeds in all the berries. The berries and clusters look normal in the photos, except they are larger than usual.

How can that be? Because Royal is a parthenocarpic seedless grape.

That is, the berries will set and develop without ever developing any seed. Many old female flowered grapes will do this, though Royal isnā€™t a female. The more common kind of seedlessness is called stenospermocarpic, in which the seed starts to develop, then the embryo aborts and the seed stops developing. In a parthenocarpic grape you wonā€™t find any sign of a seed, while in a stenospermocarpic grape, there is always a small seed remainder. Not this year. Something in the conditions allowed the Royal Seedless to develop full, normal seeds. One or two seeded berries can be found most years, but Iā€™ve never seen this grape produce ALL seeded berries before.

Iā€™ll take another set of photos in 2007 when they will (hopefully) be normal again.

By the way Drew I Strawberries can be Neuters

https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2009/strawberry-gender-decided-by-two-genes-not-one/

Blockquote
The map also shows that recombinationā€”a process in which chromosomes cross over and produce combinations of genes not found in the parentsā€”occurs. The presence of neuters among the offspring support the findings, further confirming that two genes control gender expression. F. virginiana, according to Lewers, represents a very early stage in the evolution of chromosomes controlling gender in plants.

The findings, published in the scientific journal Heredity, will help strawberry breeders determine how many seedlings they must grow from crosses of male and female parents in order to identify at least some hermaphroditic offspring that contain desired traits. This could bring breeders one step closer to developing new strawberry varieties with higher yields, disease resistance and other qualities to benefit consumers.

Blockquote

Maybe itā€™s all the bicycle riding , but I hope I never become a Neuter
I have a nice bicycle seat position now.

I didnā€™t know that! I grow musk strawberries and they require a male, it appears any strawberry pollen will work. I lost the males, and the plants still produce.

I am surprised you grew a cactus for what like 20 years , and missed the bloom while away out of town.

I am surprised you didnā€™t have two or did they self seed or was it just for beauty ā€¦

Ever thought of growing the seeds out, and see what you get?

I hope they can use that information to learn of the science better to cross breed more easily like mentioned , and the information is available to the public


Original poster I think we have Osoberry as well by bike trail
(but may have been planted by plant people and not natural by a place called blackberry farm)
you posted some time back glad you did I forgot the name or either misindentified it

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Itā€™s also possible that one or more male seedlings volunteered among your female plants.

Yes it is very possible. Genotypes are interesting too, and breeding for them, like White Strawberries with red seeds.
Making some ā€œnewā€ fashioned strawberry jam

Hereā€™s a nice photo of various genotypes
At 12 are Musk strawberries, deep red, red seeds, all white flesh
At 3 are Archer summer bearing regular strawberries, big though!
At 6 is strasberries, notice the indented seeds, much like a raspberry hence the name, just strawberry though, not inter-specific with raspberries.
At 9 are pineberries the more sun the more red tinge of color, same as in first photo.