Pollen parent: MM 09-04a
The parents:
MM 12-48a. In this cross between a pale purple flower and a bright yellow one, I was hoping for an unusual flower color. Instead, I got a pale cream flower with an orange center (cruelly battered by the rain).
What is this telling me, genetically? I got the yellow pollen parent by breeding orange and cream colored flowers. I thought the yellow was some sort of recessive; that once I'd bred away the orange, that allowed the yellow to come out. But I think this flower is maybe telling me that the orange gene was still there, but it had just been turned off, or some added gene had converted the orange to yellow. Experienced plant breeders have talked to me about "knockout" genes and others that modify colors, and I wonder if I'm seeing them in action.
Genetics sounded so simple in high school science class. In real life it isn't.
MM 12-48b.
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