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Avatar for keithp2012
Mar 28, 2018 10:23 AM CST
Thread OP
Name: Keith
Long Island, NY (Zone 7a)
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Can anyone tell me if garlic and onion will hybridize? I'm planting them next to each other.

Also if food onion will hybridize with ornamental allium.
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Mar 28, 2018 10:27 AM CST
Name: Daisy I
Reno, Nv (Zone 6b)
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Only if they are in the same species. So No.
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Avatar for keithp2012
Mar 28, 2018 12:48 PM CST
Thread OP
Name: Keith
Long Island, NY (Zone 7a)
Zinnias Plays in the sandbox Roses Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge) Plant Lover: Loves 'em all! Organic Gardener
Region: New York Native Plants and Wildflowers Lilies Seed Starter Spiders! Enjoys or suffers hot summers
DaisyI said:Only if they are in the same species. So No.


But they are all Allium family.

I did find this information on attempts https://patents.google.com/pat...
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Mar 28, 2018 2:07 PM CST
Name: Sally
central Maryland (Zone 7b)
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Family or genus is not species level sameness. I have not read of any concern in Alliums interbreeding in home vegetable gardens..

One example where you may have interbreeding in the vegetable garden is between various pumpkin and squashy things that happen to all be same species bred to different colors and shapes.
Plant it and they will come.
Avatar for RpR
Mar 28, 2018 2:12 PM CST
Name: Dr. Demento Jr.
Minnesota (Zone 3b)
keithp2012 said:Can anyone tell me if garlic and onion will hybridize? I'm planting them next to each other.

Also if food onion will hybridize with ornamental allium.

In a random manner, I would not split a dime bet on it.
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Mar 28, 2018 3:31 PM CST
Name: Charlie
Aurora, Ontario (Zone 5b)
Maintenance of Perennial Beds.
Very interesting, Keith!
Appreciate being forced to think.

I guess the answer is: not naturally, but hybrids can be produced by means of tissue culture (e.g. the"gonion"). I'm assuming, however, that the gonion is sterile.

Apparently, interspecific hybridization, typically associated with polyploidy (viz with an increase in the number of sets of chromosomes) has been an important mechanism in the (natural) evolution of plant species.
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Mar 28, 2018 3:37 PM CST
Name: Rick R.
Minneapolis,MN, USA z4b,Dfb/a
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The link describes how the hybrid(s) is made, through non-natural circumstances, and not just by a human simply dabbing pollen where it doesn't usually go.

One of the basic tenets (but often inaccurate) of a species is "breeding within its own kind".

But you are right to be suspicious. In some genera (Aquilegia, for instance) species within the genus cross very easily. On the other hand, there are genera where the species NEVER cross (Impatiens, for instance). As you might guess, most plants fall somewhere in between.

Within the Allium genus, there are hundreds of species, and whether a hybrid between any of them is even possible, depends on how closely they are related. Desert alliums are distantly related to Allium cernuum, that is native to New York. They would never cross naturally. But Allum cernuum and A. stellatum are closely related, and grown in proximity, there is a strong chance that they could hybridize.

Our Perennial Plant of the Year, Allium 'Millenium' is a chance hybrid, perhaps even between mulitple allium species.

Both onions and garlics have been bred by humans out of the wild for millenia, which would distance their relationship even more. Their morphology suggests they are far apart:
-- onions have round, hollow leaves. garlic has flat, solid leaves.
-- bulbs are completely different, too.
Garlic rarely produces seed anyway. What you see are actually baby bulbs. I don't think they would ever cross.

I don't think garlic and onion would ever cross.
When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers. - Socrates
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Mar 28, 2018 3:52 PM CST
Name: greene
Savannah, GA (Sunset 28) (Zone 8b)
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It happens naturally sometimes but not very often.
One is xFatshedera lizei is a naturally occurring cross between Fatsia japonica and Hedera helix 'Hibernica', but both plants are in the Aralia family. It's an inter-generic hybrid, a cross between plants from different genera.
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