HORTSCIENCE 51(1):15–22. 2016. species (Baker, 1970; Vander Kloet, 1988). On the coastal plain of the southeastern United States, the deerberry ranges from Phenotype and Fertility of a subshrub 0.3 m tall, with stems that form large, open colonies, to arborescent shrubs Intersectional Hybrids between nearly 5.0 m tall (Baker, 1970). In Florida, deerberries commonly grow on infertile, Tetraploid Highbush Blueberry and coarse-textured, white sand with little water-holding capacity. Sharpe and Sherman Vaccinium (1971) noted that deerberries are able to Colchicine-treated produce large berries when growing in the stamineum forest on dry, sandy soils. Deerberries in Florida often share xeric sites with turkey 1 oak (Quercus laevis), Florida rosemary Paul M. Lyrene (Ceratiola ericoides), garberia (Garberia Horticultural Sciences Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL heterophylla), and other drought-tolerant 32611 species. Like other Vaccinium species, deer- berries grow only on soils of low pH. Additional index words. blueberry breeding, deerberry, polyploidy, wide hybridization Ballington et al. (1984b) compared seed- Abstract. Several hundred hybrid seedlings were produced by pollinating flowers of lings of 11 Vaccinium species native in the tetraploid highbush blueberry cultivars with pollen from 13 plants of Vaccinium southeastern United States in a uniform gar- stamineum that were selected as tetraploids following colchicine treatment. The hybrids den at Castle Hayne, NC, along with four were intermediate between the parents in many characteristics. They were less vigorous highbush cultivars and four rabbiteye cul- tivars. Vaccinium stamineum had larger than the parents, but 46 plants flowered when 1.3 years old from seed. The F1 hybrids produced pollen abundantly, but only 30% of the microspores appeared potentially berries, higher percentage soluble solids, and higher berry firmness than any of the 10 viable when viewed at 250X. F1 flowers that were pollinated with pollen from either section Cyanococcus species in the study and parent taxon or with pollen from a different F1 hybrid produced thousands of well- higher firmness than any of the cultivars. developed seeds. The F1 hybrids were less successful when used as male parents in backcrosses to highbush, but 4790 well-developed seeds were obtained by pollinating Mean soluble solids for 25 deerberry seed- lings was 13.3%, compared with a range of 3250 highbush flowers. Flowers on F1 plants had long peduncles and pedicels, giving an open raceme. The flowers were open in the bud and had anther awns, two characteristics 7.9% to 9.0% for four highbush cultivars and 7.8% to 9.8% for four rabbiteye cultivars. from V. stamineum. Berries on the F1 plants had black skins, and the ripe berries of 11 F1 plants had red to purple pulp like their V. stamineum parent. Berries on the hybrids were Vaccinium stamineum and Vaccinium elliottii juicy. They had little or no bitterness typical of V. stamineum, and most had a pleasing seedlings had smaller stem scar diameter than balance of sugar and acid. all other populations except Vaccinium myr- tilloides. The authors concluded that ‘‘Vacci- nium stamineum is probably worthy of Vaccinium, which includes the commer- combinations in Vaccinium is very large. domestication and improvement on its own cially important crops blueberries, cranberries, Relatively few attempted combinations have merits as a new crop.’’ Fruit from three lingonberries, and bilberries, is a large genus, been reported, and no hybrid seedlings were genotypes of V. stamineum grown at Jackson with 150 to 450 species worldwide (Luby et al., produced in some reports. Intersectional hy- Springs, NC, had soluble solid content rang- 1991). These are grouped into 35 sections brids obtained by crossing diploid Vaccinium ing from 14.7% to 16.8%, which was much (Vander Kloet, 1997). Several Vaccinium sec- species have usually been sterile or nearly so higher than strawberries (6.0% to 9.7%) and tions, including Cyanococcus, Oxycoccus,and (Ballington, 1980; Ballington, 2001; Chavez blueberries (9.0% to 10.2%) (Wang and Myrtillus, include diploid, tetraploid, and hexa- and Lyrene, 2010; Luby et al., 1991; Lyrene, Ballington, 2006). Total acidity of deer- ploid species. Highbush blueberry cultivars are 1991; Lyrene and Ballington, 1986; Ritchie, berries ranged from 0.10% to 0.21%, which tetraploid hybrids involving Vaccinium cor- 1955a). Diploid intersectional hybrids may was lower than strawberries (0.42–0.98) and ymbosum and several other species in section produce unreduced gametes, which allow blueberries (0.38–0.82). Cyanococcus. them to make fertile tetraploid hybrids when Highbush blueberries develop conspicu- Within section Cyanococcus, all species crossed with tetraploid Vaccinium species or ous flower buds in autumn. These remain at a particular ploidy level can be readily hybrids (Ballington, 1980; Brooks and Lyrene, dormant over winter and open to make short, hybridized in controlled crosses (Coville, 1998; Lyrene and Ballington, 1986; Zeldin and leafless flowering branches in the spring. By 1927; Darrow and Camp, 1945; Galletta, McCown, 1997). contrast, V. stamineum does not form con- 1975). F1 hybrids and seedlings from back- Tetraploid intersectional hybrids in Vac- spicuous flower buds in the fall: it flowers on crosses and intercrosses are normally vigor- cinium range from sterile to highly fertile, new leafy shoots produced in the spring. ous and fully fertile. There is a strong triploid depending on which species are combined In flowers of highbush blueberry, the stigma block in Vaccinium, and only a few triploid and on the particular hybrid plant within and style are enclosed within the corolla tube plants have been reported (Galletta, 1975; a cross (Lyrene, 2011; Ritchie 1955a, until anthesis. At anthesis, the stigma is about Lyrene and Sherman, 1983; Megalos and 1955b; Rousi, 1963; Tsuda et al., 2013). even with the distal edge of the corolla tube, Ballington, 1988; Vorsa and Ballington, Vaccinium stamineum (section Polyco- and the distal ends of the anthers are 1 to 3 mm 1991). Most hybrids between diploid and dium; common name deerberry) is a highly inside the end of the corolla tube. In V. tetraploid Vaccinium species are tetraploid, polymorphic species with a native range stamineum, the corolla tube is very short. The due to the production of functioning 2n extending from southeastern Ontario, south flowers are open in the bud (Camp, 1945) and gametes by the diploid (Galletta, 1975). to central Florida, west to eastern Texas, the styles are visible outside the developing With so many species and sections, the extreme eastern Oklahoma, and extreme corolla tube long before anthesis. At anthesis, number of potential intersectional cross southeastern Kansas (Vander Kloet, 1988). the corollas are short, the tips of the anthers A few isolated populations occur in central extend 2 to 3 mm beyond the corolla tube, and Mexico (Vander Kloet, 1988). Although the styles extend 5 mm beyond the end of the Received for publication 30 Oct. 2015. Accepted Ashe (1931) divided Polycodium into 6 sec- corolla tube (Fig. 1). for publication 2 Dec. 2015. tions and 21 species, most taxonomists now Ballington (1995) noted that the fruit of 1Corresponding author. E-mail: lyrene@ufl.edu. treat Polycodium as one highly polymorphic wild V. stamineum is quite large for wild HORTSCIENCE VOL. 51(1) JANUARY 2016 15 from V. stamineum from central South Caro- lina. Except for V. stamineum · V. caesariense, in which 50 pollinated flowers gave two seedlings, the reciprocal crosses failed. Vacci- nium darrowii · V. stamineum diploid hybrids yielded F1 progeny sufficiently fertile to pro- duce F2 and BC1 progeny (Ballington, 1980), and partially fertile diploid hybrids were also obtained from the cross V. tenellum · V. stamineum (Ballington, 2001). In general, how- ever, diploid hybrids between section Cyano- coccus species and section Polycodium species have had very low fertility. In 1980, three diploid Cyanococcus spe- cies (V. darrowii, Vaccinium fuscatum, and V. elliottii) were crossed as females with V. stamineum in Florida (P.M. Lyrene, unpub- Fig. 1. Flowers of typical F1 hybrid (left), Vaccinium stamineum (center), and highbush blueberry cultivar lished data). Seedlings were obtained from (right). each of the crosses. A few dozen of the most vigorous hybrids were maintained in a field nursery for several years, but the plants had Vaccinium, ranging from 5 to 16 mm in gardening. The fruit of most plants is bitter, low vigor. A few eventually flowered, but diameter, with occasional plants with fruit and from part of the geographic range, produced no berries. Diploid hybrids be- 19 mm in diameter. The color of mature astringent. The berries on most bushes fall tween V. darrowii and V. arboreum (section deerberry fruit varies from plant to plant, from the plant with pedicel attached shortly Batodendron), planted in the same field, were ranging from greenish-white, to reddish- after ripening. In the forest, at the peak date far more vigorous and produced a small black, to dark purple (Ballington, 1995). of deerberry ripening, it can be hard to find amount of viable seed after open pollination Ballinger et al. (1982) found that the plants with a large crop of mature fruit still in the presence of tetraploid highbush culti- anthocyanins of deerberries resemble those hanging on the bush ready to harvest. Indi- vars (Lyrene, 1991). of Vaccinium section Oxycoccus, which in- vidual plants vary widely in