The Genetics of Heterostyly

Abstract

Breeding experiments on the genetics of heterostyly began in the 19th century led by Hildebrand (1866) and by Darwin (1877), before Mendel’s work was rediscovered in 1900. Bateson and Gregory (1905) introduced their paper on the inheritance of heterostylism in Primula with the statement: “In view of the results obtained by Darwin, Hildebrand and others, it seemed likely that the characters long-style and short-style, well known in Primulaceae and other orders, might have a Mendelian inheritance. Our experiments have shown that this is the case in P. sinensis, the short style being dominant, the long recessive.”