Pink flowered pea genes

[jayb]

How many types of pink flowering pea genes are there?
I've another pink variety, Mrs Lei I'm growing and I thought I'd like to cross it to either Elisabeth or Salmon Flowered, just to check the F1 flower colour. But if there are more than one type of pink I may not get the results I thought I might.

[Silverleaf]

b pink
ce cerise
beg begonia pink

b seems to be the most common I think. There might be more, I'll check my gene list.

[Galina]

b pink ce cerise beg begonia pink b seems to be the most common I think. There might be more, I'll check my gene list.

cr crimson

[Silverleaf]

That too!

[Silverleaf]

Also rub brick/rose red.

[Silverleaf]

A few pics of different pink flower genes in action - I don't have them all yet but I have a ce bud about to open so watch this space!


Tachyon, showing b.


Unity, showing cr.


Scholar, showing rub.

[Silverleaf]

Beacon just hinting at future cerise colour!

[Galina]

I am looking forward to seeing Beacon's colour.

May I side track and ask a question prompted by your picture, Silverleaf? Looking at Beacon's flower stem - instead of a twin flower there is a short stub. Does that mean that Beacon is always solitary flowering? Or alternatively, does the existence of the stub signify that it can (under different conditions) develop the more common twin flowers?

[Galina]

At the point where the flower stem and the stub split off, there is just a hint of pink colour too.

[Silverleaf]

That's a good question. I think there's only one bud so far so I don't know if some of the nodes will have double flowers. I'll have a good look at the plants when I pop outside later and see if I can glean any more information.

Edit: I can see two nodes clearly, and they are both singles. There's two buds tucked away in the new leaves at the top but it's too early yet to see if they are a double. Unity flowers the same way, with that long arching flower stem and the little stub with a single flower. I don't know much about how multiple flowers per node works, to be honest, because I really don't mind how the plants flower as long as they do!

[jayb]

Thanks

Mrs Lei is looking very similar, pink wise, to Elisabeth and Salmon flowered.

[Silverleaf]

They both look very similar to Tachyon, so I think they almost certainly all have b.

[Silverleaf]

And hopefully the Beacon flower will open later today... I'm dying to see it!

[jayb]

Ooh yes please, picture if you can.
Unity, I think is the stand-out looker, really lovely.

[Galina]

This is why I made the cross between 'Redder Elisabeth' and standard Elisabeth.

Just in case and on the off chance that 'Redder Elisabeth' has the cr gene. It is not very likely and I wouldn't know where it had come from? but there is no harm in checking. We may have to conclude that it is the b gene, which can express itself in a very pale pink (even white, like your White Elisabeth, Jayb) to a very crimson looking pink like Redder Elisabeth.

I notice that your Mrs Lei flowers are much paler pink than my 'standard' Elisabeth flowers Jayb. I wonder whether Mrs Lei would flower darker pink here.

Pink is not an easy colour to understand.

[Silverleaf]

I know, it does seem to be affected by the environment and it's likely also affected in small ways by other genes which probably no-one's ever really studied.

[Silverleaf]

Unity is indeed very pretty. It reminds me of a drawing done in coloured pencils, kind of uneven, whereas the others are smoother like watercolour.

[Silverleaf]

Beacon, showing ce.

Definitely cerise or cherry pink. It's also referred to as "appleblossom" and that makes perfect sense as it's the same colour as the blossoms on my Bramley (well I think it's a Bramley, I don't know for sure). Pretty, right?

[jayb]

This is why I made the cross between 'Redder Elisabeth' and standard Elisabeth.

Just in case and on the off chance that 'Redder Elisabeth' has the cr gene. It is not very likely and I wouldn't know where it had come from? but there is no harm in checking. We may have to conclude that it is the b gene, which can express itself in a very pale pink (even white, like your White Elisabeth, Jayb) to a very crimson looking pink like Redder Elisabeth.

I notice that your Mrs Lei flowers are much paler pink than my 'standard' Elisabeth flowers Jayb. I wonder whether Mrs Lei would flower darker pink here.

Pink is not an easy colour to understand.

I look forward to the results of your cross, it would be lovely to see that redder Elisabeth as a type. I noticed quite a wide range of 'pink' on the pink crown pea types this year, which isn't quite the same as they are still segregating but still a lot of scope within 'pink'.
The first few Mrs Lei flowers do look pale, I'll take a few of Elisabeth when it starts to flower to see the colour it is here this year and keep an eye out for any unusual ones.