Matthiola incana
Matthiola incana | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Brassicales |
Family: | Brassicaceae |
Genus: | Matthiola |
Species: | M. incana
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Binomial name | |
Matthiola incana (
W.T.Aiton |
Matthiola incana is a species of flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Common names include Brompton stock, common stock, hoary stock, ten-week stock, and gilly-flower.[1] The common name stock usually refers to this species, though it may also be applied to the whole genus Matthiola. The common name "night-scented stock" or "evening-scented stock" is applied to Matthiola longipetala.[2]
Matthiola incana is a common garden flower, available in a variety of colours, many of which are heavily scented and also used in floristry.
Description
Some stocks are grown as
Distribution
It is native to
Usage
Matthiola incana is widely used as an
Varieties
These varieties are sown in spring (generally from March onwards in colder areas of the Northern Hemisphere, earlier in regions with mild winters). Other varieties take longer to develop and are treated as biennials. These are often referred to as "Brompton stocks". In cool temperate regions they are generally sown in summer (June and July) to flower in the following spring. The extra trouble of overwintering the plants is compensated for by the showy spring floral display. In hard winters there may be some mortality and a well-drained sheltered site suits them best.[6]
Intermediate varieties (sometimes called "East Lothian" stocks as they originated in southern Scotland) may be treated either as annuals or biennials. If treated as annuals they give a fine late summer and autumn display. Maltese stocks (Matthiola incana ssp. melitensis), known in Maltese as "ġiżi ta' Malta", is treated as a perennial and has fleshier and fuzzy leaves with flowers in a light violet colour, while an even rarer variety of it exhibits white flowers.[7] 'Cinderella series' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[8][9]
Genetics
Double-flowered stocks are prized by gardeners for their floral display but are sterile. They therefore have to be produced from the seed of single-flowered plants. The
Selection over the centuries has greatly improved these ratios, resulting in the so-called "ever-sporting" stocks, in which pure-breeding singles are absent and the proportion of doubles is one half or greater. The reason was first worked out by the Danish geneticist Øjvind Winge.[10] In these varieties, the singleness allele is closely linked to a pollen-lethal gene. Thus the pollen (male) contribution to seed is always a doubleness allele, while the female contribution is either a doubleness or a singleness allele. The result of this linkage is that doubles and singles are produced in 50:50 ratios and there are no pure-breeding singles.
Furthermore, many modern strains produce doubles in even higher proportions: 60% or even 80%. This is due to generations of selection for further linked viability effects, producing higher mortality of heterozygous singles, relative to homozygous doubles.
Gallery
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Pink flowers
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Purple flowers
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White flowers
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In garden
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In the wild
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Wild flowers
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Emerging flowers
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Variety in wild
References
- ^ "Matthiola incana". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
- ISBN 978-1405332965.
- ^ Hickman, JC 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California 1-1400. University of California Press , Berkeley.
- ISBN 88-506-2449-2
- ISBN 978-3-8274-0918-8.
- ISBN 951-9108-09-2
- ^ http://www.maltawildplants.com/CRUC/Matthiola_incana_subsp_melitensis.php
- ^ "Matthiola incana Cinderella series". www.rhs.org. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
- ^ "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). www.rhs.org. Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 107. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
- ^ O. Winge, 1931, The inheritance of double flowers and other characters in Matthiola. Zeitschrift für Züchtung, Reihe a Pflanzenzüchtung, 17: 118-35