Sterile Thugs

I was talking with an old friend, geneticist Harold Pellet (that's him on the right), this week between our presentations at the Woody Plant Symposium at ChiBot. He is the founder and director of the Landscape Plant Development Center in Minnesota. The organization began about 15 years ago with a mission to breed northern-hardy landscape plants, and actually its original name was something like Center for the Development of Hardy Landscape Plants. One of their achievements is the Northern Lights azalea series.

But they are branching into a new direction. I was delighted to hear him say that they are using transgenic techniques and triploid development to create sterile forms of some of our most common and most aggressively invasive exotic trees! On the list are Acer ginnala, Acer platanoides, and Pyrus spp.!

Someday, if people still insist upon planting thugs like callery pears, perhaps we'll at least be able to offer them trees that have been "spayed"! If you would like to learn more, or join the group (all funding comes from memberships and donations), you can contact Harold via their web site:
www.landscapecenter.org

Guy S.

Harold's a cool guy, despite associating with Guy.

I still have in my yard two of the five Acer truncatum selections from Harold Pellet's program that he sent to trial in KY circa 1996. One has extremely rich red fall color.

I admire the plantspeople who still bother to trial plants over a long period of time and in many different growing sites before determining suitability for release. Instead of the common practice today of fancy new marketing name plastered onto nothing special.

Soon, there'll be (courtesy of folks like Harold) a great new woody plant for northern IL:

Rhamnus cathartica 'Lew's Tool' will make quite a...uh...splash.

Indeed this is good new. Of course, anyone who is a member of the Landscape Plant Development Center would know this already (hint, hint).

I still have a reject Viburnum cross from his trials from about 10 years ago. Harold lives about 4 miles from me. New introductions coming up include a fairly nice cross of Physocarpus 'Monlo' (Diablo™) and one of the yellow cultivars. Another one you say? This one is actually different. I think it's due to be released next year or the year after.

And yes, the previous name was "Center for the Development of Hardy Lnadscape Plants".

Rick

Yes, I've been a member for 14 of their 15 years, but I've paid more attention to their maple breeding and hornbeam breeding programs. I was unaware that he was already so far along with the sterility program. I hope this thread brings him some new members.

Guy S.

You said Carpinus breeding? Watch out for low-flying Decumbents....sterile or not.

Never fear -- Decumbents can't fly. By definition, they slither along the ground with only their heads erect, like evil snakes!

Guy S.

Not sure this is a good idea . . . I can see several risks/problems:

Sterile trees means no food for wildlife

Will they stay sterile? Triploids can easily bump their chromosomes up to fertile, extra-vigorous hexaploids (look at Spartina anglica for an ugly invasive example, or Aesculus carnea)

Will unscrupulous nurseries start selling normal invasive plants (cheap!) with labels proclaiming them to be (expensive) sterile plants? (nice little scam there . . .)

It also won't do anything to stop the ones that have already got away!

Resin

Speaking of sterile, can you tell me if it is possible to sterilize a Golden Rain Tree? It is the only thing that survived Hurricane Katrina in my daughter's yard and probably the one tree I would not have cried about. It puts out millions of seed that sprout everywhere overnight.

LOL, sterilization of an existing tree involves a single surgical cut at ground level. Sorry.

Resin, you make thoughtful points, although these thugs frequently usurp space that formerly grew much better wildlife plants. I doubt we would see hexaploidy here but I'm sure Harold is aware of that possibility -- his PhD is in genetics. The scam angle probably needs to be addressed in the same way patent poachers are handled. There are no easy answers, but progress is useful. The bottom line for me is that if we can start growing sterile clones of invasives it will help stem the tide, and it might alert more people to the problem. Many nursery customers are clueless about invasive plants, but seeing a sterile selection available might start them thinking about it. And a few slow learners will want to plant their dumb callery pear regardless of its thuggish habits -- you saw evidence of that via the sniping comment on the Bradford thread when you tried to help them see the light. Soon they may be able to have one with less guilt, though it still may stink up the neighborhood or come crashing down on their house.

Guy S.

Evil snake? Ouch! And while I'm still in mourning over my Aesculus parviflora seeds. Way to kick a Decumbent when he's down! This is gonna take some ice cream.

Scott

I'm thinking that there will come a day when, thru "better science" it may be possible to sterilize plant material beyond the "clear cut" method. What scares me is that, as to anything invasive, the solution will have to be government driven, and to be frank, the past has shown the solution sometimes becomes the next problem. Also, if man sought "the higher road" most dogs and cats would be neutered, where in fact, it should probably be their masters. Many roads lead to the right direction, sadly the rank and file in production and consumption don't have a clue which foot to lift first. Ken

I guess my point is: don't give up because the house is on fire -- run for the garden hose!

I enjoy and concur with your high-road point about neutering being a worthy goal for the world's worst invasive species of all.

Poor little Decumbent -- maybe ice cream with dark chocolate sprinkles and rare Carpinus seeds on the side. . .

Guy S.

I'm not sold on this new direction they are taking. I'm in the Resin camp on this one for the time being because it's all really way over my head and I still have a very bad taste in my mouth for all those "sterile" Bradfords. Granted, I'm certainly no geneticist but all of this talk gives me the heevie jeevies while the lyrics to Star Trek are reverberating in my brain as recessive genes and millions of non fruiting Burning Bushes sold by nurseries dance in my head. Haven't we tinkered with Eden enough yet? The vast majority of noxious weeds are polyploidy. They can triple their number of chromosomes before passing them on but being polyploidy means a species can also quadruple its genes so I am getting this sinking feeling in my heart that hexaploidy is no stretch at all. Great adaptive trait of noxious weeds that can and does give them a competitve edge. Perhaps there does exist some value to providing the buying public with an opportunity of "seeing a sterile selection available" that may very well "start them thinking about it". It has been my experience that the general public is penny wise and dollar foolish. The cost of these "sterile" clones will be high and although I hate to sound cynical, I'm afraid this could backfire and create even greater demand for some species that should be wiped off our continent. This man is a genius and that is undeniable and I have no doubt his motives are altruistic but all too many times now I have seen the path to righteousness lead straight to H E double hockey sticks. Sorry, this scares me. Maybe as time goes on and decades of trial data become available I will let go of my reservations.

Could be right, or maybe not? I'm no genetics expert and I'm posting this based upon my faith in Harold and upon the dire circumstances of doing nothing (or doing whatever we have been doing that hasn't worked).
I hope we can lure Harold on here to give us some more details.
Guy S.

Ohhhh gawd! When you bring him over here by us let me know right away so I can go and edit my post. I have too much respect for that man to leave what I wrote. He doesn't know me from Adam and might misinterpret what I typed. I'm not afraid of people like him, I'm afraid of all the copycats who will crawl out of the sewers trying to replicate his work with other species to make a buck.

Speaking of people out there trying to make a buck, do you have any idea who it is up in Minnesota who allegedly successfully created a cold hardy ecotype of Eichhornia crassipes? Seems as if there is a shroud of impenetrable secrecy around the creation of that little gem.

So who is a genetisist on the DG site. I want to try several grafts of Japenese maples on resident rocky mountain maples to see if the zonal weakness is root stock or buds? Is there a site that I could go to and see about those who have already tried and failed or succeeded? I don't know about compatibility in grafts etc. I would think that a hardy tree could be crossed with another hardy to get a zone 5 Maple that thrives and survives. Maybe even to zone 4b.

Soferdig:

There is work underway crossing the very hardy Acer pseudosieboldianum with Acer palmatum. Just wait a few years and they will have the beast you seek.

They better hurry cause I want to do the same thing here this summer but I'm using Acer Glabrum. It is very accepting of all soil types and is a great dry ground maple. I will have one soon. I hope. I figure that there is a very effective root system that can feed and drink on marginal soils.

Oh I hate that tree. I planted one next to my good neighbor and in a few years it broke off at least 5 branches on to his fence. Then I started reading Dirr. And followed what I read and studied before I bought. I'm sure there are you out there who love this tree. Especially if you have a wood chipper.

Thanks, Starhill Forest--then I might take a saw to the Golden Rain Tree.
And, another website to which I belong uses LOL and it means Laugh Out Loud or Lots of Laughs. Took me a while to see you were calling me Live Oak Lady--duhhhhh.

Sofer, the maple work is being done by the same group of cooperators working with Harold. Contact him, join the organization (very modest dues -- $30 basic level), and get the inside track.

Equil, I think all of these questions are legitimate; I just am not the expert to address them. I don't think Harold will take offense at anything said here because he knows the problems and concerns, or he wouldn't be trying to fix them. And I know nothing about hardy water hyacinths, but I wish they had not named them after an oak with horns and I don't want to see them clog up my pond. That is, if I still have a pond, after what is promising to be another horrible drought year.

LiveOakLady, I guess from now on you'll never know for sure when I'm laughing at you! Hee-hee-hee! Maybe you should change your handle to Live Oak Goddess and become a LOG . . .
;-)

Guy S.

Leftwood's Handy Dictionary Terms

LOL 1. Computer chat room acronym meaning "Laugh Out Loud" or "Lots of Laughs."
2. Dave's Garden colloquial acronym referring to a much loved posting participant "Live Oak Lady."

VV 1. Dave's Garden colloquial acronym referring to a much lov . . . respected posting participant, "Viburnum Valley."
2. Dave's Garden colloquial acronym ultimating referring to same. However, actual meanings are continually changing, and too many to list in any dictionary.

. . . . . .


Additions and corrections welcome.

Right-on, Driftwood!

Guy S.

And, where has Vladimir Vladivostoc been lately? Oh, VV, where art thou?

Scott

Quercus has backed him into a corner and is holding him for the last piece of PB pie.