Introducing Our New Cultivars of

Hoodia gordonii

 

Most of our research and development work has focused on development of cultivars of this species with improved disease resistance and other traits useful for production as organic produce in artificial cultivation.  This has been the primary species of Hoodia used in drug research and for the production of nutraceutical products.

 

Species Identification

We are not trained as botanists and for our research and development purposes the precise identification of species is of low importance.  The species names associated with our plants and the photographs on the species information pages in this section are generally those provided by sellers of the original parent plants obtained early in our research program and were continued with the lines of the seed bearing plants in the subsequent generations unless their morphology (phenotype) clearly does not match those of the original plants or species identification.  All of the successive generations came from open pollination and hybrids may form between the various Hoodia species.  Many of our Hoodia gordonii cultivars are putative hybrids.

The structure of flowers is probably the most important diagnostic information used to identify species of plants.  Where available we will include macro photographs of the flower centers of representative plants from our cultivar lines to assist those interested in confirming the identity of the plants.

 

Karyotypes (Ploidy Levels) of Hoodia Species and Our Cultivars

The genus Hoodia is in the subfamily of Asclepiadoideae of the family Apocynaceae.  For this and the related subfamilies Periplocoideae, and Secamonoideae Albers and Meve (2005) presented an extensive compilation of data on the chromosome counts of 672 species out of the 740 taxa in these subfamilies by determination or extraction of data from the literature.  They found that the basic chromosome number x = 11 [diploid (2n) = 22] is found to be predominant, occurring in about 96% of the taxa investigated. Some variations are present in Asclepiadoideae. About 6% of the species (7% of the taxa) investigated were found to be polyploid. The majority of such polyploid taxa are tetraploid with 2n = 44; only a few were hexaploid or higher.  All of the eight species of Hoodia had a 2n count of 22.

Based on our testing, it appears that some of the seeds that we treated with colchicine in the early years of our research yielded new polyploid cultivars with 2n = 44 (tetraploids).  No tetraploid Hoodia species have been previously identified.  Interestingly, some species in the closely related African genera of Huernia, Orbea and others also have a 2n = 44 (tetraploids) and these are presumably stable, naturally occurring karyotypes.  So far, our tetraploids appear to be stable and most of them produce viable seeds.  This was confirmed by limited testing.  Seedlings from four lots of  seeds from tetraploid plants were tested and confirmed to also be tetraploid.

Ploidy Determination Method

In October 2014 eighteen specimens of various genotypes of Hoodia gordonii grown at our Hawaii facility were submitted to the Oregon State University Seed Laboratory (OSUSL) to determine their ploidy levels.  In November we received the report of analysis from Dr. Elias Sabry of the OSUS describing the testing methods and results.

Ploidy Characterization of Cultivars

We categorize our Hoodia gordonii cultivars as diploid or tetraploid based on the karyotype of the last ploidy tested ancestor in their lineage, not by actual testing results. Some new cultivars (plants with phenotypes different from their parents) were first identified in subsequent generations (F2, F3 etc.) of seed bearing plants in lines from the tested ancestor plant. Most of our Hoodia gordonii cultivars have not been directly tested and our assumed characterizations of their ploidy based on lineage may not be accurate.  Ploidy testing of these new cultivars and those of the other Hoodia species may be performed if there is a need and funding is available.

 

Availability of Plants and Seeds

Seed lot mixtures and plants of our cultivars are available for sale from our ONLINE STORE .  Lots of seeds from specific cultivars with identifiable parent plants are also available and these will be listed on the applicable cultivar description pages that follow in this website section.  CONTACT US for additional information and to arrange special purchases of these seeds.

 

All Rights Reserved

We are disclosing information about our cultivars for the advancement of science and to assist our customers in making purchasing decisions.   All rights to naming and patents relating to these cultivars are reserved by Sustainable Bioresources, LLC.

 

References

Albers F, Meve U. 2001. A Karyological survey of Asclepiadoideae, Periplocoideae, and Secamonoideae, and evolutionary considerations within Apocynaceae s.l. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 88(4), 624-656. doi:10.2307/3298637 .

Zonneveld BJM, Leitch IJ, Bennett MD.  2005. First nuclear DNA amounts in more than 300 angiosperms, Annals of Botany, Volume 96(2): 229–244, https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mci170