New Species

Jester

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Greetings Bonsai addicts!! Has anyone on this forum crossed two existing species to create a new one? If so, What did you cross? Do you have a photo? what is the process involved in having it registered and authenticated? Is it a long process? Is it costly? Which particular body do you contact to do this?:)

Thanks
 

Vance Wood

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I am not sure of what you mean by a new species. Are you talking about crossing a Hornbeam with a Pine tree or something like that? If so it cannot be done because species are species because they have their own unique genetic codes that make them different from other species. Some species are close enough related that they can be crossed like the horse and ass giving you the mule, lions and tigers give you ligers and so on. In the case of a White Pine and a Hornbeam if it were possible you might get a White-horny-Pine but it is not possible without some serious genetic manipulation.
 

Jester

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Hi Vance

No , sorry , just to clarify, I am talking about say, crossing a lime tree with a lemon tree. ie The species belong to the same same family, in fact in this case, they belong to the same species. The two trees , as far as I know have never been crossed before. So I am trying to ascertain as to whether this has been done by anyone on the forum. Hope that clears things up a bit. Sorry for the confusion. :)
 

amkhalid

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The concept of species is sketchy... like Vance said, some biologists consider a species to be a group that is 'reproductively isolated'... but this definition is insufficient for many organisms. And is often hard to test.

i.e. are polar bears and seals reproductively isolated? probably, but lets see you prove it :)

But anyway, crossing limes and lemons won't make a new species by any definition. It will make a hybrid. Many citrus trees are hybrids anyways, and I think limes are one of them.
 

rockm

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Um, sure it's been done. Citrus species interbreed pretty easily. There's a lemon/lime hybrid on this list:
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/plants/rutaceae/citrus.htm

There are others...

Unless you have a specific cultivar that shows some promise (pretty, edible, prolifically fruiting, winter hardy etc.) then there's really no reason to think you've got something valuable...

You'd have to know the specific lemon and lime cultivars that produced the plant to even begin gauging what you've got.
 

Vance Wood

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Um, sure it's been done. Citrus species interbreed pretty easily. There's a lemon/lime hybrid on this list:
http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/plants/rutaceae/citrus.htm

There are others...

Unless you have a specific cultivar that shows some promise (pretty, edible, prolifically fruiting, winter hardy etc.) then there's really no reason to think you've got something valuable...

You'd have to know the specific lemon and lime cultivars that produced the plant to even begin gauging what you've got.

If you start getting into cultivar issues then you start getting into patent issues as well. If you have a named cultivar hybrid it may or may not be legal to use that fruit as a parent for your experiment at lest if you somehow come up with something of value. In which case the holder of the patent on one of the parents may claim the profits from your hard work, or file suit for punitive damages.

A good case in point for bonsai growers: The Too Little Ficus is a patented cultivar. Technically it is illegal for you to grow them from cuttings at all but especially onerous to re sell them.
 
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grizzlywon

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Technically it is illegal for you to grow them from cuttings at all but especially onerous to re sell them.

I am not trying to argue here, but have an honest question. How in the world world they be able to prove that what you are selling is from their tree? Do they do a DNA profile? Just wondering.
 
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