Definition of Hybrid Plants

Reproductive parts of a flower

Hybrid plants are the result of the efforts of plant breeders who deliberately engineer new varieties of plants by combining the most desirable characteristics of the parent plants. Because of the way in which hybrids are developed, the process is labor-intensive.

Selection Process

Growers cross-pollinate the best specimens of plants they want to develop in order to produce hybrids. To do this they select specimens of the healthiest male and female plants in the greenhouse that display the traits they want to achieve.

Traits Considered

Hybrid tomatoes

The traits a grower looks for depend on what she hopes to produce. She may be trying to create a tall hybrid or one of a particular color. For food crops she may look for the most disease-resistant plants or those that grow the largest fruit.

The Technique

Once the plants have been selected, the pollen-bearing anthers of the female plants are removed so that only pollen from the selected male plants can pollinate the plant. The pollen is then manually transferred to the female plant.

Resulting Seed

The seed created from cross-pollinating selected plants will produce new plants with the sought after characteristics of the parent plants.

The Next Generation

When the new generation produces seeds, those seeds will not necessarily produce plants that look like the hybrid parents. Instead, new plants must be cross-polinated one generation at a time.

References

• Hybrids and Heirlooms
• Three Ways to Make a New Plant