Abstract
This report illustrates interspecific crossings between 7 cultivars of sweet cherries (P. avium L.) and 1 cultivar of ornamental cherry (P. × yedoensis Matsum.). Our objective is to obtain hybrids that have edible fruits as well as attractive flowers. Almost all of crossings of P. × yedoensis as the seed parent with sweet cherries (P. avium) as the pollen parents were unable to set fruit. However, 6 of 7 reverse cross combinations (P. avium × P. × yedoensis) set fruits (0.2–26.7%). A total of 456 fruit were obtained from the above crossing experiment, however, only 192 fruit (42.1%) produced normal and vivid embryos. These could be transferred to an embryo culture. As a result of crossing in three combinations, a total of 42 F1 seedlings were obtained. Some morphological traits of the F1 plants such as pubescence and the color of the leaves or fruit were supposed to be dominant on the basis of their segregation ratio. This also certified that these hybrids were not derived from any pollination error. Further, RAPD analysis detected derivative bands from both parents in the hybrids, confirming the hybrid nature of the offspring.
