Most Attractive To Bumblebees?

[GrowingCoastal]

Originally Posted by joseph

I love growing the descendants of hybrids!!! I'm growing a lot of Sungold F2 this growing season, and some that are about F5 or F6.

Do the plants from Sungold and other hybrids change much from the parent?

[joseph]

The offspring of hybrids tend to resemble their parents and grandparents. I'm growing around 48 Sungold F2 this season. There is one plant that has red fruits, and there is one plant that has fruits about 50% larger than Sungold, and a few plants that have much smaller fruits. But for the most part, the offspring look and grow like Sungold. There are some differences in leaf shape and plant structure from plant to plant, but there is a strong family resemblance.

I have been selecting the F5/6 Sungold population for promiscuous flowers. So I'm finding a lot of change within them. I expect mostly from naturally occurring cross pollination.

When I make crosses between parents with radically different phenotypes, then the traits of the grandchildren may resemble one parent or the other, or different traits from different parents might be reassembled at random, or traits might be anywhere in-between the traits of the parents. However, new traits don't tend to show up: Just rearranging and merging of traits that are already manifest.

If I cross two great tomatoes, the descendants tend to be great tomatoes.

[joseph]

Bumblebee on Solanum habrochaites, a wild tomato species. This accession has a beautiful floral display: a big cluster of huge flowers carried high above the foliage. It would be a beautiful plant as a specimen in a flower garden.

[joseph]

I'm loving the floral display on some of the wild tomatoes that I'm using for the promiscuously pollinating tomato project. And so are the bees and other pollinators.

S. habrochaites, S. peruvianum, (back row) and S. corneliomulleri (closest row).

[Gardeneer]

Wow ! they do look like flowering plants. Amazing !

[Keen101]

nice! The bigger more attractive flowers should help. Especially if you can combine it with exerted stigmas and self-incompatibility!

[Keen101]

Im excited to see this thread start up again. In a related note i saw an unknown micro bee attempting to visit flowers in my pea breeding patch. Not sure if it had sucsess biting through or not but it was cool to see. I wonder if there is a pea flower mutation somewhere that would allow bees easier access somewhere that could be used to breed promiscuous peas like you are doing with tomatoes. I will have to check the JIC to see if i can find one.

[Keen101]

found some interesting info today. Are you working with S. sitiens and S. lycopersicoides? Because apparently they have scented flowers....

http://vanderknaaplab.uga.edu/files/...ant_Review.pdf

https://link.springer.com/article/10...9863-6?LI=true

Variation in mating systems and correlated floral traits
in the tomato clade

The wild relatives of the cultivated tomato provide a
great diversity in mating systems and reproductive biology
(Rick 1988). Several species, including cultivated tomato,
S. lycopersicum (formerly Lycopersicon esculentum), are
autogamous, i.e. self-compatible (SC) and normally selfpollinating
(Table 1). They bear small- to modest-sized
flowers, on mostly simple and short inflorescences; their
corolla segments are relatively pale colored, the anthers
short, and the stigma surface does not protrude (exsert) far
beyond the tip of the anther cone, all traits that promote
self-pollination and discourage outcrossing.

At the other end of the spectrum are several allogamous
(outcrossing) species. These taxa are all self-incompatible
(SI) and have floral traits that promote cross-pollination,
including large, highly divided inflorescences, brightly
colored petals and anthers, and exserted stigmas. This
group includes two pairs of sister taxa—S. juglandifolium
and S. ochranthum, and S. lycopersicoides and S. sitiens—
that are closely allied with the tomato clade, but are classified
in two other sections of the genus (Peralta et al.
2008). All four of these tomato allies have unique floral
traits that set them apart from the tomatoes: anthers lack
the sterile appendage typical of tomato flowers, pollen is
shed via terminal anther pores instead of through longitudinal
slits, anthers are unattached rather than fused, and
flowers are noticeably scented (Chetelat et al. 2009). It
should be noted that S. pennellii lacks the sterile appendage
and has terminal pollen dehiscence, but in all other respects
more closely resembles the other members of the tomato
clade.

Between these extremes are two groups of species with
facultative mating systems. The first group, which includes
S. pimpinellifolium and S. chmielewskii, is SC but their
floral structures promote outcrossing. Within S. pimpinellifolium,
there is significant variation in both flower size
and outcrossing rate. Under field conditions with native bee
pollinators, the rate of outcrossing in S. pimpinellifolium
was positively correlated with anther length and stigma
exsertion (Rick et al. 1978).

Another striking difference is that flowers of S. sitiens and S. lycopersicoides are strongly scented, whereas those of S. chilense and S. peruvianum—like all other members of Solanum sect. Lycopersicon—have no obvious odor (Table 3). The production of volatile scent compounds presumably serves to attract insect pollinators, perhaps a broader suite of bee species or other types of insects. Interestingly, the floral scent of S. sitiens, a ‘mothball-like’ odor, is noticeably different from that of S. lycopersicoides, which is more reminiscent of honey or nectar.

[Nan_PA_6b]

In my yard, I've noticed the following:
Monarda aka bee balm attracts the bumblebees.
Ampelopsis brevipedunculata attracts every type of vespid-like pollinator there is. Such biodiversity I have never seen! A bunch of little bee- and wasp-like thingys. If you get the variegated kind, it's less invasive.
Mentha piperita also attracts a lot of small unusual things. I once had a large web of a golden orb weaver in my mint patch and could see a large diversity of caught insects.

Nan

[gorbelly]

Wow, Joseph. Those tomatoes are practically ornamental flowers! They look like part of a cottage garden.

[BigVanVader]

Agreed. Joseph your work is truly amazing and needed. I've enjoyed reading back through your threads and your website. I am doing some landrace melons this year and I think squash will be next. Thanks for helping me see things from a different point of view.

[joseph]

I continue to select for tomatoes with bold floral displays, huge petals, and exerted stigmas. Seems like the bees are appreciating my efforts. They sure are visiting the tomato flowers a lot.

For example, the brown staining on the anther cones are because bees are grasping the anther cones and bruising them.


Bumblebees really like the larger/bolder tomato flowers.


So do a few species of smaller bees. Here's one I managed to photograph.

[PhilaGardener]

The bees aren't the only ones appreciating your efforts!

[Nan_PA_6b]

Those brown anther cones- I had them this summer. I was unsuccessful getting pollen from those cones for a cross. Guess the bees were working them pretty good.

Nan

[KarenO]

Very cool. I like watching them in my garden too. They chew the end of the anther cone right off
KarenO