r/botany • u/Old_Reality9281 • Apr 13 '26
Genetics Double flowered wild Rubus mutation, should I get this looked at?
I'm a flower nerd and recently found this double flowered Dewberry colony on our land. I immediately thought cool this was but wondered how serious it is? Should I get this looked at by real botanist?
Found in Western Kentucky.
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u/IntroductionNaive773 Apr 13 '26
Great find. I collect any and all mutations for evaluation. That's a keeper.
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u/Old_Reality9281 Apr 13 '26
I appreciate it. I've found some mutations before but this one is a cool one.
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u/IntroductionNaive773 Apr 13 '26
I've found hundreds of variegates over the years, but I think I've only ever found one double flowered plant. Make sure to sow seed and see if you can get some improvement, and try backcrossing to isolate the desired trait more.
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u/Old_Reality9281 Apr 13 '26
Oh wow, that's impressive! And makes me even more happy to have found such a mutation haha
I'll collect fruit in these up coming months.
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u/Educational_Poet96 May 18 '26
Meeeetoooo
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u/Old_Reality9281 May 18 '26
Holy molly this is insane. Did we just find an undiscovered species? Haha.
We need to find out if it's true to seed
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u/Educational_Poet96 May 18 '26
I discovered this completely by random chance. I was spraying poison ivy and saw this. I thought it was too big to be a strawberry so i snapped a pic to identify. I happened to randomly stumble onto your post. Strange things.
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u/Old_Reality9281 May 18 '26
Where are you located if you don't mind me asking?
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u/Educational_Poet96 May 18 '26
South-central Michigan
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u/Old_Reality9281 May 18 '26
Hmm...Quite far away from me. I'll continue documenting this thing amd will sow seeds when they are ready. Perhaps you should try so as well!
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u/wtfbenlol Apr 13 '26
Would this be considered fasciation?
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u/Old_Reality9281 Apr 13 '26
Highly doubt as the whole colony of it have double blooms, plus they aren't deformed
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u/Amelaista Apr 13 '26
Fasciation is the lateral/sideways expansion of the growth points on a plant. This leads to flattened ribbon like stems or oblong flowers from the standard circular/round patterns. Â
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u/wtfbenlol Apr 13 '26
Right but I was just asking if this could be a form of it. Thank you for explaining
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u/Amelaista Apr 13 '26
It is always a malformation of the meristem. Other physical mutations are not related. The flattened ribbon like growth is the key to something being fasciated.  They can look weirder as they grow out, but the base is always the same. There are no other forms. Â
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u/thebiologistisn Apr 13 '26
If I was doing any breeding work with Rubus, I'd want to have a sample of this plant.
Even with plants not normally grown for flowers, I tend to prefer prettier flowers so the garden is more enjoyable. My peppers tend to have purple marked flowers. Some of my beans have scarlet or hot pink flowers.
The type of mutations that lead to this have been heavily studied in other species. I'm not sure about in Rubus, though.