three cotyledons???

I have a rose seedling that germinated today from an open pollinated pat austin and it has three cotyledons. Is this normal?

One of the cotyledons is kind of lobed too but one part of the lobe is smooth without those little teeth.

looking in the archives it seems this is quite a regular occurence…

Hi Simon,

Yes, this does happen fairly often. As far as I can tell, it probably means nothing (not good or bad) and probably has no effect on the mature seedling. I have also seen four cotyledons.

Also, four petals happen somewhat frequently in young single seedlings, but it seems that most develop 5 petals like normal single seedlings, while still throwing an occasional 4 petal bloom.

Jim Sproul

Thanks for the reply Jim. I don’t know much about the patterns of inheritence in roses yet and am just playing with open pollinated seeds to begin with. I started thinking it might be an expression of the polypoidy that exists in roses… but again I don’t know enough about this and was just guessing. There seems to be some indication, in the archives, that extra cotyledons may be linked to reduced vigour in the seedling that may or may not correct itself as it matures. Is this what others have found? Has there been any reduced vigour in mature seedlings that would, in general, make these roses unsuitable garden specimens?

Cheers,

Simon