Preliminary Observations on Fruit Handling, Seed Germination and Chloroplast Inheritance of an Amenotaxus Hybrid Arising at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh from A. argotaenia (F) x A. formosana (M)

Abstract

Seed quality of Amentotaxus species is generally considered to be poor. This paper describes some general observations on the collection, processing and germination of seeds of an Amentotaxus hybrid (A. argotaenia [F] 3x A. formosana [M]) that originated at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 2005. It also includes the details of five different methods for incubating/culturing the hybrid seeds – three of these methods resulted in almost 100% germination. DNA analysis confirmed the hybrid origin of the seeds and in common with many conifers, chloroplast inheritance was shown to be via the paternal side.