Steve,
I wouldn't assume that species wide crosses are triploid. I think there are far more diploid F1 wide crosses than triploid. Where this gets confusing is when seedlings are produced from the F1 they often are triploid as the wide cross is more likely to produce unreduced gametes and breeds like a tetraploid. So Fusion (L. pard x L. long) x L. pard could produce triploid offspring. I am not saying it is always this way but there are many examples I could give to support this as a very possible outcome. Thank you for sharing your success with this cross - seems like it would be interesting to try other WNA species/hybrid pollen (like L. kelloggii or L. parvum) on Fusion to get other color patterns/genetics into this line.
Leftwood,
The comments about the pod vs. pollen parent traits carrying through as more dominant in the offspring is not a scientific concept. There are many that like to say the pod parent traits are more important for one reason or the other. I have asked this question of many reputable plant breeders that are trained on this and the answer is consistent that neither parent carries more weight in the genetics of the offspring. The only exception to this is something like hosta where the pod parent is a critical link to streaked hosta (streaked pod parent exponentially increases the odds of streaked leaf seedlings). I believe people tend to believe one parent is dominant over another for several possible reasons:
1) they don't raise enough seedlings of a cross to see the full characteristics of all the seedlings
2) they don't account for certain traits being dominant regardless of whether it comes from pod or pollen parent
3) due to fertility they tend to use certain lilies as pod or pollen parents that have dominant characteristics that would come through regardless but are only used as pod or pollen as it produces better seed
4) someone else told them and they assume it as correct and continue to propagate this misinformation
I would be glad to share more on this if interested.
