Inheritance of plant height and flowering time in the wild potato species, Solanum verrucosum Schlechtd

The inheritance was studied of plant height and flowering time in a hybrid between the short-stemmed, late-flowering introduction CPC 1339 of Solanum verrucosum and the tall-stemmed, early-flowering introduction PI 195172 of the same species. The range of plant height in CPC 1339 served as a criterion in classifying the populations into tall and short plants from measurements at four growth stages. The averages of these four measurements were used in the genetic analysis. The observed ratios fit a hypothesis of two dominant complementary genes for tall stem. Late flowering of CPC 1339 appears recessive to early flowering. The segregation ratios can be explained on the basis of two complementary dominant genes for early flowering.