Annuals: zinnia problem, 1 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
Deb,

I have to admit, I have never seen a zinnia just like that. There are actually two unusual blooms in your first picture. There is a second younger petal-less bloom in the lower left portion of the picture. I suspect that they are on the same plant. My guess is that your other orange zinnias in those pictures are Magellan Orange

http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefront/p-2962-zinnia-magellan...

which are a commercial F1 hybrid zinnia. Commercial F1 hybrid zinnia seeds are produced by planting alternate rows of a carefully inbred male pollen donor strain of zinnias and rows of special apetalous (without petals) male-sterile (femina) zinnias. Since the femina zinnias don't produce pollen, they can only be pollinated by the inbred male strain, so bees can do the actual pollinating, thus avoiding human labor to produce the F1 hybrid zinnia seed.

My guess is that one of the feminas used to produce your Orange Magellans did somehow self-pollinate itself, and your odd zinnia is an apetalous result of that. If you save seed from commercial F1 hybrid zinnias, you have a chance of seeing some femina-like offspring.

I am attaching a picture of an odd two-headed zinnia that is currently blooming in my zinnia garden. It is on a plant with "normal" marigold flowered zinnias. I will be saving seeds from it, but I don't expect them to produce two-headed zinnias. But I might be surprised. Zinnias frequently surprise me. I breed them as a hobby and I enjoy their surprises.

ZM