I have found a naturally-occurring dwarf alder. It looks normal in
every way except that it hasn't grown tall, the gap between annual
whorls of branches is much shorter than the normal alders around it.

Is this trait likely to breed true from seed?

I have no particular use in mind, it just struck me as an interesting
variant.

Michael Bell

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On Nov 4, 8:34*pm, Michael Bell wrote:
I have found a naturally-occurring dwarf alder. It looks normal in
every way except that it hasn't grown tall, the gap between annual
whorls of branches is much shorter than the normal alders around it.

Is this trait likely to breed true from seed?

I have no particular use in mind, it just struck me as an interesting
variant.

Michael Bell

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Only a percentage of the seed will have the same properties. It has to
be bred back over generations or cuttings taken. That's why you buy
most trees as saplings, they are cuttings and hence "clones" of the
original plant.
It takes years to get them to breed true because trees take so long to
come to maturity and bear seed.

There is a possibility that a freak dwarf tree would have a genetic defect and would not produce viable seed. A nurseryman once showed me such a tree he had been trying desperately to propagate for several years, and he had some specialist lab onto the job. It was a freak dwarf Eucalyptus gunnii (cider gum), a very beautiful thing, and he was of the unsurprising opinion that if he could reproduce the thing he'd make a bit of money. The last time I met him, he had still failed after trying for several years. Eucalyptus are exceedingly difficult to propagate by vegetatively.

And then this brings us back to the original question. Any variation
is just that and may or may not be reproduced in seedlings depending
upon whether the variation becomes 'fixed'. Generally, you can bank
on variations being 'one-offs' and unlikely to be reproduced amongst
the majority of seedlings. If you want to be certain of being able to
reproduce a variation, the only reasonably certain method is to
propagate vegetatively. That is assuming the variation is stable and
not prone to reversion.

On Nov 5, 8:10*pm, Dave Poole wrote:
And then this brings us back to the original question. *Any variation
is just that and may or may not be reproduced in seedlings depending
upon whether the variation becomes 'fixed'. *Generally, you can bank
on variations being 'one-offs' and unlikely to be reproduced amongst
the majority of seedlings. *If you want to be certain of being able to
reproduce a variation, the only reasonably certain method is to
propagate vegetatively. *That is assuming the variation is stable and
not prone to reversion.

I recently bought willow alder and poplar trees. They were all grown
from little bits of wood about 100mm long.

In message
Michael Bell wrote:

I have found a naturally-occurring dwarf alder. It looks normal in
every way except that it hasn't grown tall, the gap between annual
whorls of branches is much shorter than the normal alders around it.

Is this trait likely to breed true from seed?

I have no particular use in mind, it just struck me as an interesting
variant.

Michael Bell

Further to this, I have looked further around and I see that there are
quite a lot of trees like this. This is obviously a plantation and
similar trees must have been together in the nursery and they most
stayed together when they were planted out.

Michael Bell


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