What Is A Hybrid

When we think of hybrids, the most common example is the mule

whose parents are a female horse and a male donkey. But hybrids

occur in the plant world and often are created to give us crops that

produce more food or flowers that are easier to grow or have more

attractive blooms. Professionals and amateurs create hybrids, the

best of which show up in nurseries and catalogs. In addition,

hybrids may be discovered having occurred naturally.

But how are hybrids actually created? Hybrids come from two

different parent plants that belong to the same species. For

example, two different daisies may be combined to make a more

beautiful daisy, but a daisy and a rose cannot be crossed to make a

new plant. When both parent plants are in bloom, the hybridizer

takes the pollen from one flower and places it near the ovary of the

other parent plant flower. This flower absorbs the pollen, which

creates a fertilized seed pod. This in turn may be harvested to

obtain seeds that will create a new hybrid plant.

In addition some plant hybrids, just like the mule, may grow and

live but are sterile or unable to reproduce. In other words, that

plant will not create seeds that can be planted to grow into an

identical plant. Other hybrids will produce viable seed but the

desirable characteristics may not show up in succeeding generations.

The term F1 is used to denote seeds that are the result of a

successful cross between two different parents. Hybrid seeds are

often sold with the warning their offspring may not grow true or the

look the same as the parent plant.

Plants like other living things have chromosomes. If the two

parent plants have different even numbers of chromosomes, the

resulting hybrid may have an odd number of chromosomes and also be

sterile. A hybrid that has an even number of chromosomes should be

able to produce viable seeds. Sterility may mean that the resulting

plant has no seeds. In some plants such as watermelons this is a

desirable characteristic.

Creating a hybrid or cross pollinating is a little like gambling,

because we don’t always know how things will turn out. A hybrid

plant may have the best of both the parent plants or some of the good

and some of the bad characteristics of its parents. Those who work

on creating new hybrid plants may cross pollinate different parent

plants many times before obtaining a new plant that has the desired

characteristics.

Plants are often identified by their Latin names and a hybrid

will contain the Latin names of both parent plants with an “x” in

between indicating the hybrid status. Following the Latin will be

the variety name which is usually italicized, not capitalized, or

preceded by the abbreviation “var.” Plant variety names refer to

hybrids that may have occurred naturally. Plant names may also

include the term cultivar which refers to a variation in the plant

characteristics resulting from a hybrid done by human beings and that

have remained stable from one generation to the next. Cultivar names

are usually capitalized and may be preceded with the abbreviation

“cv”.

Gardeners who enjoy a challenge may try making their own

hybrids and if successful, have the joy of owning a truly unique plant.