more on Garnacha vs Cannonou

On Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:50:26 +0200

Trying to follow here... Is this all by way of saying that Grenache is not a cultivar (properly speaking) of VV really? A cultivar is (in the best of worlds) a vegetally propagated (by grafting, cutting or layering) clone of the parent plant, i.e. a taxon in which all examples are genetically identical.

In reality many cultivars in the nursery trade are diluted by unscrupulous producers who seed raise plants from one or both true parents, (easier than grafting in some cases) and then sell these similar offspring, some of whom go on to become stock plants. In the US there are several examples of Japanese Maples that have gone this route. For this reason these cultivars are no longer clones, but a grex.

Or, further up the tree, is it just a variation, (or form), on the species with all of the polymorphism that implies? How does a botanist write it:

Vitis vinifera var. Garnacha (polymorphic variation by region and climate) V. vinifera f garnacha (as var) V. vinifera 'Garnacha' (syn Grenache, Cannonou etc) (all genetically identical) V. vinifera 'Garnacha B1' (for example). (The grex)

Any Vitis specialists in the house? :)

-E -- Emery Davis by removing the well known companies