Inheritance of ornamental traits in bird cherry families with the cultivar ‘Nezhnost’ in their pedigree

Background. Bird cherry plants are highly ornamental; they are diverse in shape, size and color of leaves and flowers, flowering and fruiting schedules. At present, they are widely used for landscaping parks and public gardens. In Russia there is a need to release new highly ornamental and winter-hardy cultivars using the genetic potential of both known and newly developed genotypes.Materials and methods. In our experiment we used a pink-flowered sample found by R. A. Mastinskaya in the vicinity of Novosibirsk and transferred to Krymsk Experiment Breeding Station of VIR, where it was studied and released as a cultivar named ‘Nezhnost’. One of its seedlings from free pollination became known as No. 11-5-37. Crosses included cvs. ‘Colorata’ (source of the spring red leaf trait), ‘Purpurnaya Svecha’ (summer/autumn red leaf), ‘Pamyati Salamatova’ (number of flowers, and brush length), accessions Nos. 1-1-8 and 11-1-8 from the Central Siberian Botanical Garden’s collection (diameter of flowers and inflorescences), and selected forms “Tereshkovoy 38” and “Tereshkovoy 48/2” planted in Akademgorodok (brush length, number of flowers, and flower diameter).Results. Unlike European genotypes, these cultivars and hybrids are adapted to the conditions of Siberia. Over a long observation period, freezing was not observed on plants even in the most severe winters. Our data indicate a manifold composition of the gene complexes controlling the manifestation of both the pink flower trait and spring red leaves.Conclusion. A possibility of obtaining pink-flowered seedlings in a number of cross combinations and peculiarities of the inheritance of traits in them are shown. Five hybrids were identified for combining valuable traits; they are promising for ornamental and breeding uses. Some of them have already been developed into new ornamental cultivars. 