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Until someone crosses the two!
And here we go again!
Until someone crosses the two!
to get an 'uncorrupted' strain of a species of these plants would be a stroke of luck at best unless the hybridist has a wild collected plant that was selfed.
Harold Koopowitz says 15-18 months for hirsutissimum and 6-9 months for esquirolei.
David
Why are we concerned with 'uncorrupted 'strains of species rather than understanding the normal variation of the species?
There would be no point in judging species if everything was a xerox copy of the original collected plant, and something inbred from continuous selfing has no value in the conservation arena. So you are left with a stamp collection with no practical value.
I can think of a couple; If you start breeding for some particular
"improvement" and lose the original strain but then run into a dead end with the breeding you cannot get back to the beginning to try another approach. Conservation is about conserving both the diversity and the individual. Your argument seems to be let the polar bears and grizzly bears go the way of the dodo bird because we have plenty of other different kind of bears.
What I was suggesting is that over the years, different similar looking species have been cross bred and this is the corruption of which The hirsutissimum x esquirolei situation I venture to say has been happening for years and this is why we are getting the variations in shape, color & hairs stem length etc we see.
We are debating strains or varieties not species,
You are correct in your thinking Ed. A strain is more then one. A single plant with an unusal trait is called a "cultivar" or sometimes a "clone", as in, single clone.Surly the definition of strain means more that a single plant and its offspring.
I realize that Rick I was just trying to make the point obvious. I agree that if you are just breeding from a single plant and continuously selfing it you are going to lose. That is why zoos that are trying to preserve a species are always trying to enlarge their breeding program by breeding with other animals that are known to have a different genetic background. But you can do the same thing with a "strain" so long as you do not limit yourself to a single plant and its offspring. Surly the definition of strain means more that a single plant and its offspring.
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