Bergenia × Mukdenia = Mukgenia? Maybe Not...

 If it's one thing I know, horticulturists love to hybridize plants to create uniquely new and never before seen genetic combinations.  Que the "Mukgenia", a relatively new plant developed by hybridizing Mukdenia with Bergenia.  At first glance this being an intergeneric hybrid makes it rather impressive as these crosses between very distantly related plants are often not easily made.  The developer has also not publicly provided many details regarding how they were able to achieve this cross.  They did however leave some clues such as indicating this was made with good old fashioned cross pollination (no laboratory needed) and the single "Mukgenia" hybrid clone which they have released for sale was not the result of their first cross.  This indicates they may have repeated the same cross multiple times while searching for the "perfect" (according to their goals) plant, or this plant may have originated from back crossing or otherwise line breeding out of the original cross rather than repeating it.  Either way, it appears the genetic compatibility between these two genera is very high if the breeder had the liberty of multiple options to select from amongst the progeny.  

Now, why do I hypothesize that Bergenia × Mukdenia may not = Mukgenia?  Because aside from already visible morphologic similarities, this interbreeding compatibility indicates their relationship may be closer than originally thought and perhaps...  maybe Mukdenia is rightfully just another species of Bergenia.

Because I am a curious person, and because I have two different Mukdenia clones in my collection along with multiple Bergenia, I have fallen for the temptation to test my theory and determine just how inter-compatible these plants really are.  Conveniently one of my Mukdenia clones (M. rossii 'Karasuba') has had perfect bloom time overlap with my favorite select seedling of Bergenia crassifolia and so I placed them side by side and began repeatedly hand pollinating the Mukdenia flowers with Bergenia pollen over the coarse of about a week.  In leaving them side by side I had hoped my efforts would be supplemented naturally by local insects, but alas I did not see any pollinator activity around them at any time.  

Mukdenia rossii 'Karasuba'

Bergenia crassifolia (my own select seedling)

At this point I have not seen any signs of flowers aborting from failed pollination and instead have seen the ovaries begin to swell in the oldest Mukdenia flowers which were pollinated first.  Based on my study of available literature I believe most Bergenia and Mukdenia may be somewhat resistant to self pollination so if any seeds are formed they should be mostly if not all of hybrid origin.  Once grown out their morphology will be analyzed to confirm if this is the case.  

If I successfully produce F1 hybrids the next step will be to determine if these hybrids maintain a good degree of fertility to set seed and reproduce themselves.  If they are mostly sterile it will support the current nomenclature indicating Mukdenia belongs in its own genus separate from Bergenia, but if the offspring are mostly or fully fertile it will be hard to argue anything other than Mukdenia = Bergenia.  :) 

Stay tuned...  I'll be updating this post periodically as I have new info to add. 

(I have plans to make additional crosses using other Bergenia species in the next year or two if this first attempt is successful).