A Chimera in the Cultivated Strawberry

Abstract

IN July 1949, Mr. J. E. Spickernell, provincial fruit specialist, East Midlands, discovered a variant in the M.40 clone of Royal Sovereign strawberry. In these plants the petiole hairs were adpressed upward, instead of spreading (that is, perpendicular to the petiole). In 757 plants of the same stock at this Research Station, 7.5 per cent were found to be of this variant form, and 1.1 per cent had both normal and variant crowns. In two plants some leaves with spreading hairs on one side of the petiole and adpressed ones on the other were found (see illustration), and in another, two consecutive runner plants on a single stolon had adpressed and spreading petiole hairs respectively.