Moraea MM 03-07

Seed parent: Moraea MM 99-00 (atropunctata x neopavonia?)
Pollen parent: Moraea villosa (probably form F)

Crossing a Moraea hybrid with a species often produces interesting variations, and this one is a great example. The two variants are both orange flowers with blue eyes, but beyond that there are some cool differences.

(In case you're wondering, I've tried several times to cross these two plants together, with no success.)


MM 03-07a is pale orange with a darker orange ring in the center, and a small blue eye. The backs of the tepals are unmarked. This plant is about as vigorous as the average Moraea species. I have yet to breed it successfully as either a seed or pollen parent, but I need to do more experiments.

MM 03-07b is gaudy. It has a huge vivid blue eye outlined in black, and has purple spots on the backs of the tepals. This is a very vigorous plant that produces lots of offsets and has a very high bud count. The plant produces lots of pollen, but is not a great pollen parent; so far I've been able to cross it onto only M. villosa. As a seed parent it's moderately successful, with seven good crosses so far.

Here it is in bud. You can see the spots on the backs of the tepals. The flowers start off a fairly strong orange color and fade as they expand.

This photo shows the back of the tepals in a fully open flower.