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I accidentally planted a Pea bean plant in with a stand of Borlotti beans, and they have cross-pollinated.. This is what I mean by the pea bean : http://www.nvsuk.org.uk/growing_show_vegetables_1/pea-bean.php Take no notice of the aegypticus bit



Borlotti bean pods are similar to large runner beans, streaked with red which on drying turn to a purple brown. Pea bean pods are shorter, and green turning to a straw colour.The cross-pollinated pods were very similar to the pea bean, but darker and tinged with red.



Colours haven't reproduced well, but the borlotti bean is a large oval bean, salmon pink with darker streaks, and the pea bean is round, two-toned cream and chestnut brown.

Here are the crossed beans :



Size and shape are intermediate between the parents. One bean is completely speckled grey, blue and purple; another is mostly black with an oval speckled patch, and the other is almost completely black.

Cool, what do they taste like?  Has your new hybrid got any significant advantages to either of it's parents?

I like wierd and wonderful things. 

I wonder what would happen if you were to plant the hybrids, would they revert back to either parent or would they grow true?  Maybe we need a genetacist to answer that one !

Helen

Good idea Tinkie_Bear - i'd never actually thought about EATING any. I was just saving them to plant next year!

I noticed a couple more pods the same on the pea bean wigwam proper - about 5 feet away from the borlottis. No wonder they call them french beans- they'll bonk anything that moves  :D

Mendel lives on.

He hybridized round peas with wrinkled peas,
but the results confused him because of the dominance of one trait over the other.

In your case,  RT,  there seems at first sight to be no dominance,
so,  if you did a large number of crosses, you would expect a ratio of
1 Pea bean to 2 hybrids to 1 Barlotti.

This assumes (probably correctly) that the originals were pure bred over many generations.

Incidentally,  your hybrids are F1.   They will not come true to type when germinated.
What do they taste like?

I'll post a very non-pc summary in the watershed.
It's an old limerick,  it's not mine,  and I'm not racist.

Sorry.

Mrs C says I might get into real trouble if I post the limerick.

yes I understand that Clayhithe. It's just for a bit of fun, and beans are very interesting

i seem to remember that in some of Mendel's experiments he "knew" what should happen, so he fiddled the results accordingly. Luckily he was right, at least as far as his peas went

I'll have a tasting of all the types of bean tomorrow. I bet they all taste of bean

Quote from: Clayhithe on October 23, 2007, 18:29:29F1.   They will not come true to type when germinated.

In fact,  if you let them cross-pollinate freely the ratio will stay the same.

Quote from: Clayhithe on October 23, 2007, 18:29:29Mrs C says I might get into real trouble if I post the limerick.

but I have anyway.

Yes,  he 'fiddled' the published results,
but he'd been crossing peas for so long that he knew exactly what they'd do.

Thanks for reminding me, I forgot about the almost dry beans I picked over a week ago, some partially shelled. Found one "rogue" plant - a climber amongst the dwarves. I think I know one parent - Cherokee Trail of Tears - the shape is similar (round) but is paler and speckled!

Of the difference between a pea bean and a borlotti was a single gene you'd get the 1:2:1 ratio, assuming no dominance or other complications. I suspect it's probably several genes, in which case you'll get more of a spectrum.

Quote from: Clayhithe on October 23, 2007, 18:57:13
Yes,  he 'fiddled' the published results,
but he'd been crossing peas for so long that he knew exactly what they'd do.

you can say that type of thing here, but I wouldn't repeat it in a PhD vivo (for instance)