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The Japanese have been cultivating mutant morning glories and are able to keep up these mutant genetic lines even before Mendel's experiment with peas. What is interesting is that even without the scientific data, these mutant lines have been maintained for ages and even now still enjoyed by morning glory enthusiasts. Here will be discussed the two categories that mutant Japanese morning glories fall into: Masaki (正木) and Demono (出).
MASAKI
Masaki mutants are those mutants with the desired genes that are carried from one generation to the next by simple mutations. This mutation can be kept without keeping a parental stock, or what the Japanese call "oyaki". Star-shaped blooms (kikyo), dwarfs (cultivars such as kawaii), windmill, contracted are some examples of Masaki mutants. Basically, if you plant a Masaki mutant, theoretically (not considering pollinating factor such as cross pollination) ALL the seeds produced by this plant should also carry for the desired mutant trait. Hence when you have a star-shaped bloom (kikyo) that produced seeds, ALL the seeds produce will have star-shaped blooms.
DEMONO
Demono in Japanese literally means "segregating plants", and this category of mutant morning glories do not produce seeds which is why we have to keep a parental stock (parental stock in Japanese - oyaki). We, as English speakers often use an online translator which translate Japanese characters as close to it can get. If one has noticed, "Bargain Chance" frequently appears in this translation. Bargain Chance is the soft-translation for Demono, which is actually inaccurate.
To keep the desired mutant genes, we must select normal looking flowers (because these are the ones that only produce seeds). From these normal looking flowers, different types of leaves and blooms will be produced; some will be normal while some will be unusual-looking. This makes this category a complex system because you will have to test the parental stock for the desired traits such as double blooms and curled leaves (Please see Arlan's blog on "Dragon-Claw leaves" as this is an excellent example of a Demono mutant morning glory http://davesgarden.com/community/blogs/t/atenkley/4889/ -this is a thorough explanation for this system, and a more general explanation on the next posting).
Eliz
PS: picture below is a Windmill type bloom, seeds courtesy of Debrah (reverse tube). This can be categorized as Masaki mutant morning glory
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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