Hi everyone, hope all are well. I am very interested in learning about Acer genetics and which species can hybridize with each other. I know very little at this point, but there is some great threads on here with discussions pertaining to this subject, as many of you seem to have great knowledge on the matter. So I have a question: What are the chances that one of the Macrantha section maples would hybridize with the native Acer pensylvanicum, which are very prevalent in my neck of the woods, and potentially overtime dilute the pensylvanicum gene pool? Is that even a possibility? I wanted to know before I start planting other snake barks all over the place. Thanks, Kyle
Let me clarify, dilute the gene pool in my area, which happens to be in the middle of a national forest.
All of the section macratha hybridize freely with only a few exceptions (micranthum seems to be one here). I think it would take a while to dilute the forest population of pensylvanicum, but you'll almost certainly get some local hybrids. Typically maples hybridize within the section, so for example if you have a pictum and a platanoides planted side-by-side, both Platanoidea, you are likely to get some nice hybrid offspring. The same is true for most of the section Palmata, which of course leads to interesting cultivars (many "shirasawanum" cultivars seem to be palmatum crosses). Of course some sections or species are less sexually promiscuous than others. cheers, -E
Thanks very much, Emery. My fear is that, being located in such close proximity to a national forest, the "local hybrids" could potentially lead to trouble over time in a small area. I hope I don't sound ridiculous. Would a few hundred feet between trees greatly decrease the chances of cross pollination? Common sense says yes, but I do not know for sure since maples are sometimes pollinated by bees, right?
Well, I'm certainly not an expert in pollination, but I do know that Acer is (maybe largely) pollinated by insects. Though I'd guess a couple of 100 feet would present no real barrier, it seems to me that -- in terms of wanting to avoid species dilution in the forest -- there are a couple of things on your side: statistically, there are many more natives than whatever you can put in; and I imagine natural pollination probability would roughly follow some sort rate proportional to the reciprocal of the inverse square of the distance. That is to say, a tree would be 100 times less likely to be pollinated by a tree at 10 m than by one at 1 m. (Understand I'm making this up as I go along! :)) This likelihood would go down even further if there were many of the undiluted species trees in close proximity. I was really thinking of local hybrids in your garden more than the forest, though it wouldn't surprise me if there were a couple there, they'd have to grow up, compete with the local population, etc. So I really wouldn't see it as much of a problem. Maybe someone else has a different view! -E
