This is all very interesting. I grow both Hosta and brugmansia and find there are tricots in both, more in hosta, but probably because there are so many more. I think brugmansia snowbank is one.

Is there a site to read more on this and or your study??

Here are some additional sources from a research paper from North Carolina University. Very little research done on this phenomenon. I am accumulating data for a possible research paper on this. But have no solid data yet in all plant genera. Since this is an avocation of mine, I don't know when ill get around to doing a paper on it. Thanks for your updates on yet another plant species having tricotyledons.

The behaivior of tomato Polycotyledons was very much like that described by DeVries (Ueber Trictyle Rassen. Ber. d. Deutsch Bot. Gesellsch. 20:pp 45-54. 1902; and in Opera VI; pp 314-322) for many plants, not including tomatoes. MacArthur, J. W. (X-ray mutations in the tomato. Jour. Hered. 25:(No 2) pp.75-78, 1934) reported a progeny from x-rayed seed which was 25% polycotylous but the trait seemed to be unfixable. F.U.G. Agrelius (Kansas State Teachers Coll. Emporia Kan.-Botanical notes-in Kansas. Acad. Sci. Trans. 32:117-118, 1929 and F. C. Gates, Trans. 31:49-50, 1928) grew plants from tricotyledonous tomatoes and failed to obtain similar types in their progenies.

The data i need is more than likely spread in the literature of the state experimental stations. The data is usually buried in other research as it was in this one.
Here's the history of the crossses used to create the lines.

PART I
RESEARCH NOTES
Resistance to late blight and southern bacterial wilt.
Barham, W. W., and Ellis, D. E.

As a result of the cooperative tomato breeding project, the Departments of Horticulture and Plant Pathology at North Carolina State College have developed a number of tomato lines possessing good field resistance to southern bacterial wilt. However, only a few of these lines have fruits approaching marketable size. In 1950, one line, 45-1-1-1-1, had several plants with fruit of marketable size (1/4 to 1/3 pound); however, these fruits contained only a few seeds and were of poor quality. Crosses were made in the greenhouse between this resistant, large fruited line and other resistant lines with smaller fruit. Plants from the progenies of these crosses, along with more than 200 breeding lines selected in 1950, were tested in the greenhouse and field in the spring and summer of 1951. The more promising selections from these lines will be evaluated for quality and yield in replicated tests in 1952.

Seedlings of late blight resistant and susceptible parental lines and from crosses of resistant with resistant and resistant with susceptible lines were taken to the field in flats when late blight was very active. Those seedlings had inoculum sprinkled over them; late blight developed uniformly in all thirty flats, killing all susceptible plants. From this test it is possible to conclude that inheritance of resistance to late blight is not fully recessive and that segregation in F2 indicates a more complicated type of inheritance than a single factor. However, it was gratifying to find F2 segregates appearing as resistant as the resistant parents. Inheritance of resistance studies will be continued, and the more promising of the advanced breeding lines will be included in the late blight free replicated test in 1952 for quality and yield evaluations.

Hairless (hl), a new character in the fifth linkage group.

Butler, L.

Hairless plants (hl) are characterized by the complete absence of trichomes except for some glands filled with clear fluid. Because of this lack of hair the stamens tend to be dialytic. Hairless plants can be told from smooth (H) plants by the absence of hair on the hypocotyl. Smooth plants (HH) have a few hairs at the growing tip and many hairs on the hypocotyl and the adjacent part of the stem. Crosses between smooth and hairless give F2 ratios of 9 smooth to 4 hairless to 3 hairy. The hairless gene is in the fifth linkage group, 19 cross-over units from green stem (a). Limited data indicates that it is between jointless and green stem. The seed of hairless was obtained from Dr. E. A. Kerr of the Horticultural Experimental Station, Vineland, where the mutation occurred.

Sticky peel (pe), a new character in the seventh linkage group.

Butler, L.

Sticky peel (po) has been fully described by P. A. Young who sent me the seed for linkage tests. The sticky peel plants are light green and very hairy. These have been found to be monogenic characters linked with sticky peel. The characters have been given the following symbols: sticky peel - pe (for peel), very hairy or villous - vi, light green foliage - lg. Preliminary linkage data indicates that all three genes are between the H and t loci of linkage group seven.

Jointless-leafy inflorescence.

Butler, L.

In view of the present interest in these genes it is advisable to give a brief account of their history. Both came from Rouge Niane Hative. Leafy inflorescence was discovered by J. W. MacArthur in 1926, and its linkage with greenstem and faciated was worked out. At this time we know the penetrance of leafy was not complete, so any plant with one or more leafy inflorescences was classified as lf. In 1931 I discovered jointless in an F2 containing leafy and was able to show that it was also linked with the other fifth chromosome genes. Only two apparently non-leafy, jointless plants were found in an F2 of over 14,000, but these unfortunately were not saved. Later MacArthur made selections which were marked Lf j but so far none have proven to be non-leafy. Some of these classifications were the result of the interaction bu and mc with jointless. Others may be because of the lack of penetrance of lf. Last summer I selected an Lf j and kept the plant in the greenhouse all summer. Every inflorescence was jointless and non-leafy. In the fall, cuttings were taken to perpetuate this plant, and on examination I was very surprised to find most of the inflorescences were leafy. Another jointless non-leafy selection would not self, but set good seed when crossed. The F2 segregates from this should indicate whether jointless and leafy are really separate genes or merely pleiotropic effects of the same gene.

bolrog, I showed this article to a botonist friend in Australia to get his thoughts on it. he is presently unable to register as the form will not allow hin to do so without a valid USA ZIP code even though he choses Australia as his country so I am posting Dr A Hay's reply here for you.

I also noticed that my radish tricotylendons subsequently showed no sign of shoot fusion. The exception was when i got two four leaved seedlings among the F2 progeny of my Hybrid radish. It subsequently developed two whole conjoined plants. This is why it more than likely is an evidence of a conjoined somatic twin embryo when deformed or seperate leaves are formed above the normal cotylen number of two leaves. The F1 generation originally selected from had what i called trilobed leaves but no tricotyledons. Thank you for your information on the seedlings you came across. I am in the process of making a selection of normal seedlings of several thousand to get a good statistical ananlysis of the ratio in the normal radish seedling population. The correct ratio for the selfed tricotyledons and deformed leaves will then be known as well in the F1 generation. I will employ population as a whole crossing methods to get enough seedlings for evaluation and publication of the results. I believe this phenomenon is throughout the whole plant kingdom without regard to species and genera of plant involved. I feel that the general population parameters will be between 1 to 3 percent of the total and that in every case of a tricotyledon being selfed that the inheritable factor will increase in the percetage of the population it shows up as tricotyledons and malformed leaves. This could possibly be a long looked for genetic marker that would transcend the boundaries of genera and species in the whole Plant kingdom.

I teach 6th, 7th, 8th grade science. My 7th graders have been working over the last month to learn all they can about monocotyledons and dicotyledons by using pinto beans and corn. They have weighed dry seeds and compared this weight to soaked seeds and then the developing seedling weight. They have kept sketches of the change in growth, both overall and at increments from the top of the plant to the soil level to determine if growth occurs differently along the stem.

One day, one of the students called me over, having discovered a tricotyledon. As the next couple of days continued, we've discovered that amongst our 50 +/- seedlings, we actually have quite a number of tricots. I'm thinking we're seeing a batch of self-crossed tricots, as mentioned by bolrog in the March 7, 2006 posting.

My students are quite excited and some are interested in communicating with bolrog to see if their research is of interest to the research.

Julie A. Conlon
Lafayette Christian School
525 N. 26th Street
Lafayette, IN 47904

I have tricotyledonous seedling magnolia hybrids. I'm thinking that they might grow a little faster than the others. I'd like to think that it represents polyploidy increases? Maybe just increased leaf and flower size will be the indicator.