Advances in interspecific hybridization in Fuchsia

Fuchsia breeders have utilized only a small number of species despite its rich genetic diversity that contains over 110 species. Consequently, the present day Fuchsia cultivars are mostly with flower colours that range from red through purple to pink and white with a missing yellow colour. Most of the cultivars of fuchsia are small shrubs so that if the growth form of the plants could be altered to produce smaller, procumbent plants there is a possibility to exploit new market niches. Recent interspecific hybridization programme resulted in the production of a yellow flowered hybrid from a cross between F. encliandra and F. procumbens, a beginning of success story. The procumbent plant growth character has also been transferred in a cross with F. splendens. A variety of breeding barriers were also recorded as not all the cross combinations are sucessful in the hybridization program including sub-viable plants that showed a virus-like syndrome. This paper aims to emphasize these recent advances made in interspecific hybridization in Fuchsia including first reports on nucleolar dominance in Fuchsia interspecific hybrid, meiotic nuclear restitution and genome sizes. The relationship between crossability with chromosome number, ploidy level, genome size or taxonomic position was also presented.