Siam Blue Hardy Water Lily

 

Pairat Songpanich (prs230@yahoo.com) and Vipa Hongtrakul (fscivph@ku.ac.th)

Rubber Research Institute, Department of  Agriculture and Department of Genetics, Kasetsart University

 

 

In order to get a Blue Hardy Water Lily, many red flower cultivars of nymphaea subgenus have been pollinated by blue flower water lily of the brachyceras subgenus.  A successful crossing yielded only one pod or fruit with 244 seeds, from which only 39 seeds germinated, yielding 20 good hybrid plants.  They have different distinct flower characteristics with rather red, pink as well as white and blue colours.  The prominent hybrid plant with beautiful blue-purple flower has been named as Siam Blue Hardy and proved to be a hybrid between nymphaea and brachyceras subgenera by the PCR-RFLP markers, as well as other inherited plant characteristics, for example, ovary carpel, leaf, rootstock or rhizome.

 

                    

Restriction enzyme

 

DNA fingerprints of parents and their hybrid based on PCR-RFLP technique of ITS (internally transcribed spacer) sequence