I am suspicious of altaica not being tetraploid but diploid or triploid.
-only one seed per hip which produces weak seedlings.
-what bothers me most seedlings of it are triploid -Hazeldean, yellow Altai, Prairie Dawn (pollen looked at by me and amothet
Has anyone looked at pollen or counting chromosome?
As a grower the plant in the picture HMF is different from the one I grow.
J
Johannes,
In my experience, the hips of Rosa altaica always produces several seeds. When the flowers are self-pollinated as they mostly are, the seedlings are always strong growers.
When I lived in Edmonton, which I did for several years, I knew the locations of several shrubs of this species. It was always a joy to see them flower in early spring. There are none in the Ontario Rainy River region, where I live now.
Paul, in the small town, that my family comes from,this maybe the easiest rose to grow. While short flower season, the effect is stunning. What attracts me the most is the huge bushes there a smattering of flowers into fall. I also get time to time a rebloomong seedling.
Hi Paul, maybe I have not stressed -I want this rose to be a diploid or triploid. I want to use it in breeding.
Johannes,
Yes, a large shrub of Rosa altaica is magnificent in full bloom. Perhaps my favourite rose.
I think you’re out of luck. Pretty sure it’s tetraploid.
This question has also interested me myself, and on the occasion of a recently acquired insightful book on genetic analyses of internationally known and Swedish roses, I contacted the editors of the book and asked if the ploidy of R. spinosissima var. Altaica had also been analyzed. They forwarded my request to the gene bank.
Here is the answer:
We did not analyze the roses in the study using a specific chromosome number analysis such as flow cytometry. The electropherogram resulting from our SSR marker studies shows, at least for one of our markers, that R. spinosissima var. altaica is tetraploid, 2n=28. The results for the other markers are not as clear, but do not contradict this either.