In 2020 I obtained Turner's Spring from that year's HSL Seed List. I grew them in the same season for seed increase, pretty much leaving them to their own devices due to circumstances. I only observed the taste (which was wonderful) and the dry seeds' appearance when it was harvest time. A single pod had mixed up seeds: yellow, green, round, wrinkled, and quite small. I presumed they were the result of a random cross, and saved them separately.
Being short on space this season I chose not to grow the offtype seeds. But I planted plenty of the type seed for seed guardian contributions; 100% wrinkled & green.
Over the past 2-3 weeks the growth has really exploded, and while many of the plants began to develop gigantic features, a high proportion of them were notable for quite the opposite. These scrawny plants were just as tall, but had slightly darker foliage, smaller flowers with sepals that were more pointed in shape, small pointy leaflets, bloomed 3-4 days earlier, and had the unmissable bunny ear stipules.
I had read of rabbit-eared rogues here and there in the past, and thought not much of them - but seeing them up close, in contrast to the regular plants, was striking. And I experienced equal amounts of excitement and alarm...
Some varieties are more prone to 'rabbiting' than others. The change is epigenetic and permanent; cross a non-rabbit to a rabbit-eared and all offspring, in all subsequent generations, will be rabbit-eared.
Bateson & Pellew studied them in 1920 and their findings are definitely worth a read https://royalsocietypublishing.org/d...rspb.1920.0009
So it's imperative to keep on the lookout for these rogues, in particular for the Turner's Spring variety.
I've let the HSL know so they can tell other guardians. Apparently the whole batch was sent out to members that year. No idea whether they intend on notifying all recipients of the seeds. But I'm hoping they will because vigourous roguing is essential to this variety's maintenance, at least in the short term.
I'm now growing some of the offtype seeds, just to see their characteristics, though I have the assumption that their appearance was due to the rogue factor.
Comment