NINETY members of the Wyche and Colwall Horticultural Society attended the November meeting and enjoyed an illustrated talk given by Dr Murray Mylechreest (a former Dean of Sciences at what is now University College Worcester) entitled The Origin of Plants.

The talk covered the domestication of plants from their wild origins, with examples of garden flowers, fruit and vegetables and commercial crops.

It was explained that some plants have been selected from wild progeny over hundreds and even thousands of years to produce modern seed strains (e.g. rice, maize and wheat) and are not so different that their ancestors cannot be easily identified in the wild.

When a basic understanding of genetics was established, it heralded the creation of new varieties by controlled crossing, where the pollen from one flower is transferred onto the stigma of an emasculated flower of a different species or variety. This science is usually attributed to Gregor Mendel in 1866.

However, Dr Mylechreest felt that much credit should go to a local Herefordshire man, Thomas Andrew Knight, an early president of the Royal Horticultural Society.

He was growing apples and pears by controlled pollination at the turn of the 18th Century and wrote about his ideas. Dr Mylechreest has seen an annotated copy of Knight's book among the effects of Mendel (when he visited Mendel's home town of Brno, Czech Republic) and felt this showed clear evidence of plagiarism.

Dr Mylechreest then explained how new varieties arose spontaneously in nature as sports due to naturally occurring genetic mutation. This was exemplified by the occurrence of a different coloured flower on a chrysanthemum plant. Finally, the modern creation of F1 hybrid seeds was explained. At the end, members asked some interesting questions, which were answered to the satisfaction of the audience.

The next meeting is the AGM on Monday, December 1, at Colwall Village Hall starting at 7pm with a talk on The Gardens of Hidcote Manor by Duncan Coombs, a lecturer at Pershore College.