Naturally Cross-Pollinated Flowers

General

• Most natural hybrids occur within groupings of plants known as natural hybrid swarms, where the plants cross-pollinate with abandon to form more natural hybrids. Naturally occurring plant swarms have been studied and documented for hundreds of years. Gregor Mendel studied evening primrose in the 1800s, and several scientists have continued the study since then. A swarm of natural azalea hybrids on Gregory Bald mountain are an azalea lover's dream, and Donald Hyatt of the American Rhododendron Society led a project to classify and catalog them. These are only two examples of the study of natural hybrids, with many more likely going on all over the globe.

Evening Primrose

• Greg Mendel started studying the Oenothera in the 1800s. Hugo de Vries picked up his work in the 1900s, and many geneticists have studied them since then. They discovered that evening primrose has the ability to mutate and still produce distinctive hybrids from seed, even when living in close proximity to the parent plants. This phenomenon is almost unheard of in the wild, because natural hybrids are usually sterile.

Brugmansia

• Brugmansia x candida is a natural hybrid of B. versicolor and B. aurea discovered growing in the wild in the Ecuadoran mountains. Two forms of this plant exist: the original white-flowered and one with peach-colored flowers. Ecuador Pink is a natural hybrid of unknown parentage discovered growing in one small area in Southern Ecuador. Its 12- to 18-inch-long flowers open snow white and change gradually to a deep pink. It was introduced by Logee's Greenhouses to the commercial market.

The Gregory Bald Mountain Azaleas

• In the Great Smoky Mountains along the Tennessee-North Carolina border, exists a swarm of natural hybrid azaleas like no other. On Gregory Bald mountain, now part of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, the azaleas grow in and around an isolated valley that was once home to a village called Cades Cove. Donald W. Hyatt, President of the Potomac Valley Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society, and Virginia McLean have begun to document and catalog the natural hybrids found on Gregory Bald and have published their findings online.