Rhododendron 'Angel Powder', which is Weldon Delp hybrid documented as R. minus var. minus 'Epoch' x R. mucronulatum var. mucronulatum, has been determined to be a triploid using flow cytometry by
Dr. João Loureiro, Dr. Silvia Castro, José Cerca, and Mariana Castro
Plant Ecology and Evolution Group,
Centre for Functional Ecology,
Department of Life Sciences,
Faculty of Science and Technology,
University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Werner Brack has germinated open pollinated seed collected from 'Angel Powder'. 'Angel Powder' is the first documented fertile triploid lepidote.
In the case of triploid 'Angel Powder', a tetraploid crossed with a diploid produced a triploid indicating that normal reduced meiosis most likely occurred for both parents. In other words, 'Angel Powder' having 39 chromosomes received 26 chromosomes from the tetraploid 'Epoch' and 13 chromosomes from the diploid R. mucronulatum.
Summary of Ploidy Levels
Triploid 'Angel Powder',
Triploid 'Kehr's White Ruffles',
Tetraploid R. minus var. minus 'Epoch'
Source: John and Sally Perkins
John and Sally Perkins
