Flower traits passed on from Mom or Dad?

[Chris_W]

I was wondering if the flower traits are passed on more by the pod parent or the pollen parent, or either or both?

The reason is that I have a self-sown seedling in the growing area I've been watching for 2 summers and it is now starting to bloom and I was totally surprised by the flower. I thought it was a seedling from Marquette Park because it has a lot of red streaks on both sides of the petioles (although twice as much as Marqette Park) plus has very wide petioles right down to the base, similar to Marquette Park. But Marquette Park has Sum and Substance type flowers, and the flower this one is getting looks like it will be dark purple (or at least that's what it was looking like until someone stepped on it and broke off the scape - it is in water now).

This plant is also sending out 2 new eyes from the base - but somewhat far away from the original eye so looks to be rhizomatous. So I took a quick look and realized that this looks like a green version of Bill Brincka (growing a couple rows away) but with tons of red on the petioles. The scapes are foliated more like Marquette Park, it is sending up scapes at the same time as Marquette Park while Bill Brincka is a little further behind, so really looks like a combination of the two.

I guess I would like to know, if possible, if it is on open pollinated seedling of Marquette Park or an open pollinated seedling of Bill Brincka

I'm going to dig it up and move it so I'll try to get a picture of the plant later.

[renaldo75]

Interesting question, Chris. I think the only way you'll ever know is to fire up your time machine & go back to when this seedling was being pollinated. Then you'll have to watch carefully & see which plant this particular seed fell from to the spot where it sprouted.

[leafmould]

Hi Chris, both form, colour and colour pattern in hosta flowers are a trait inherited from both pod and pollen.
An early bloomer bred with a late bloomer will bloom mid season. Check the bloom times of the suspected parents.
post a pic of that bloom

[John]

Chris, maybe check into other offspring of each of the supposed parents, and see what traits are dominant?

[wishiwere]

So, are there dominant and recessive genes in plants like humans or not?

[DBoweMD]

There are dominant and recessive genes in hostas, but it looks like most of the traits we see are polygenetic... More than one gene involved in expressing the traits.
In humans, this is like height, there is not a dominant gene for it. If you get a lot of "tall" genes combining from two parents, the child can be taller than either one of them.

I agree with Leafy's answer, the flowers seem to be a mix from each parent. Even the degree of fragrance is different in the ones we have, like 'Fragrant Blue' is not as fragrant as 'Guacamole', and none are quite as potent as 'Plantaginea'. This suggests mutiple genes are present. Otherwise there would only be three possbilities: Very fragrant (two fragrance genes), somewhat fragrant (one fragrant gene and one non fragrant) and not at all fragrant (two non fragrant genes).
It appears that fragrance is carried by at least one dominant gene, as all the progeny of Plantaginea have it.

[Chris_W]

I've been watching more, and Bill Brincka has actually sent up a scape after Marquette Park, and the flowers are deep purple, just like this seedling. The scapes on Marquette Park came up earlier but the flowers are not even close to forming yet, so bloom time/scape time is about the same.

The scape on the seedling is foliated identical to Marquette Park (Bill Brincka scapes are not at all foliated) but the flower is identical in color and pattern to Bill Brincka.

Because of the location of the seedling I am leaning towards it being: H. 'Marquette Park' x H. 'Bill Brincka'. Even though it probably won't be anything too exciting it sure is fun to see what the bees can hybridize all on their own