Breeding of new Tulipa cultivar through interspecific hybridization between tulip cultivar ‘Bolroyal Dream’ and Tulipa altaica

Interspecific hybridization is an important method in plant breeding for improving modern cultivars introducing traits from wild species.
In our study, the interspecific hybridization was performed between tulip cultivar (‘Bolroyal Dream’) and wild species (Tulipa altaica). A total of 102 hybrid seeds were obtained from the interspecific hybridization cross in 2004 and 18 surviving seedlings flowered in 2009. The best promising breeding line (Code No. 2004-16-08) was evaluated and named ‘Zhao Xia’ in 2018. The new cultivar ‘Zhao Xia’ has more attractive and smaller flowers than T. altaica and ‘Bolroyal Dream’, respectively. ‘Zhao Xia’ had a little earlier florescence than ‘Bolroyal Dream’ in Shenyang city.
In conclusion, ‘Zhao Xia’ is a promising new tulip cultivar in northeastern China with novel flower color and shape

VIII International Conference on Landscape and Urban Horticulture

G.M. Xing, Y.Q. Zhang, H.H. Zhang, T.Y. Wu, J.J. Lu, L.W. Qu

Tulipa spp., interspecific hybridization, breeding, cultivar

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1345.61