Interspecific hybridisation betweenLimonium perigrinum Bergius andLimonium purpuratum L.

Summary Interspecific hybrids betweenLimonium perigrinum andL. purpuratum were obtained usingL. perigrinum as the female parent. No hybrids were produced by the reciprocal cross. Twelve- to 15-day-old embryos were rescued and cultured within their embryo sacs on modified B5 or KM medium. After two to three days the embryos were excised from their embryo sacs and re-plated on to fresh medium. When the embryo-derived plantlets had attained a length of 1 cm they were transferred to a modified MS medium containing BA and NAA for shoot proliferation. Plantlets were transferred to modified MS medium supplemented with IBA for 24 hours for root initiation then to a modified growth-regulator-free MS medium for root growth. After a further 28 days the plantlets were transferred to soil-less medium for acclimatisation. The hybrid characteristics of one of the 15 embryo-derived plants were determined by flow cytometry and by examination of morphological features. The mean DNA contents of 2C nuclei fromL. perigrinum, the hybrid andL. purpuratum were 13.98 pg, 16.81 pg and 19.37 pg, respectively. Mitotic and meiotic chromosome counts fromL. perigrinum andL. purpuratum showed that both parents and their hybrids had identical chromosome numbers (2n=24), and that the species were closely related. Morphological analyses of leaves and flowers showed that the hybrids displayed a number of features intermediate between both parents.Abbreviations B5 Gamborg et al. (1968) B5 medium - BA benzyl adenine - IBA indole-3-butyric acid - KM Kao and Michayluk (1975) medium - MS Murashige and Skoog (1962) medium - NAA napthalene-1-acetic acid - PVP polyvinylpyrrolidone