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One-year data on colchicine-treated chestnut seedlings

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Chesapeake Science

Abstract

A 0.5 per cent colchicine solution was applied six times to 50 seedlings of chestnuts (Castanea) during their first growing season in a nursery.

About 100 leaves were affected by colchicine. They had less expressed margins, more rounded apexes and were darker green than normal leaves. One or more of these colchiploid leaves were found on about 50 per cent of the treated seedlings, but in 80 per cent of these specimens the affected segments were overgrown by the normal tissues exhibiting regular leaves. For instance, three seedlings of a hybridC. dentata × mollissima F2 carried colchiploid leaves interspersed with normal leaves. However, two leader shoots inC. dentata, three—inC. mollissima, and one inC. sativa continued to grow in colchiploid form and in this condition produced winter buds. These specimens will be most valuable for further research leading toward development of triploids.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inland Resources Division, Natural Resources Institute of the University of Maryland, Annapolis, Maryland

    John B. Genys

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  1. John B. Genys
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Additional information

Contribution No. 224 of the Inland Resources Division, Natural Resources Institute, University of Maryland, Annapolis, Maryland.

The author wishes to express thanks to Dr. Haig Dermen Cytologist, Plant Industry Station, Beltsvill, Md., for technical advice; Dr. Vagn Flyger, Research Associate Professor, Natural Resources Institute, for photographs of specimens; Mr. S. Sines, Nurseryman, Maryland's Department of Forests and Parks, for growing the research material; Dr. Francois Mergen, Associate Professor of Forest Genetics, Yale University, Dr. Jonathan W. Wright, Associate Professor of Forestry, Michigan State University, and G. Francis Beaven, Research Associate Professor, University of Maryland, for comments and suggestions on manuscript.

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Genys, J.B. One-year data on colchicine-treated chestnut seedlings. Chesapeake Science 4, 57–59 (1963). https://doi.org/10.2307/1351298

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