GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Grafting Quince onto Hawthorn ? will it be compatible

Stewart Robert Hinsley · 03-02-2009, 10:19 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In message ,
writes
In article ,
wrote:

Sorry I don't know about quince. But there is a long and successful
tradition in Roscommon of using Rowan as a rootstock for apple. Long-
established rowans were selected from "down in the wet", dug out and
the trunks cut. Then the "rootstocks" were transported to their new
location on the farm to receive the grafts.

I don't believe the ubiquitous hawthorn was overlooked as a rootstock
due to superstition - rather that the rowan was much better.

That would imply that Sorbus and Malus are fairly close; I know that
Pyrus, Cydonia and Chaenomeles are, and that Craetagus, Pyracantha
and Mespilus are. I don't know where Cotoneaster, Amelanchier etc.
fit in.

The latest study, AFAIK, is Campbell et al, Phylogeny of subtribe
Pyrinae (formerly the Maloideae, Rosaceae): Limited resolution of a
complex evolutionary history, Pl. Syst. Evol. 266: 119-145 (2007) - at
least there's nothing newer in the citing papers proffered by Google
Scholar.

There's a severe shortage of clear groups. Eriobotyra and Raphiolepis go
together, as do Crataegus and Mespilus, and Amelancher, Malacomeles and
Peraphyllum. The last two groupings appear to join together as well.

The other two groups identified in the paper are Docyniopsis, Eriolobus
and Malus, and Cydonia and Pseudocydonia.

IIRC, more focused papers adduce further evidence for the relationship
of Cratageus and Mespilus, and also for the monophyly of Crataegus.

Sorbus s.l. fits together in cpDNA data, but is scattered all over the
place in nuclear DNA.

Pyracantha doesn't appear to be close to Crataegus and Mespilus. (I was
under the impression that it was closer to Cotoneaster, but that isn't
borne out either.)

I don't think that it's safe to use interfertility or
graft-compatibility (on their own) to infer relationships between genera
in this group; chance, reticulation and the uneven distribution of
primitive and derived traits all confuse the issue.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley