Hi Enna,

Well, you didn't get an immediate response, so I guess I will "jump in". I don't grow Hibiscus, but I do grow and breed zinnias as a hobby, and I see several tricotyledonous zinnia seedlings every year. There are several outcomes. Usually a normal main stem will arise from the three cotyledon start, so those are apparently irrelevant. Occasionally there will be several nodes on the main stem with three leaves per node and three side branches arising from those nodes. The side branches are usually on a plan-of-two, but occasionally even some of the side branches will exhibit the plan-of-three.

I think the plants on a plan-of-three look better than normal zinnia plants on a plan-of-two. It's not just that they have 50% more branches, but the triangle geometry looks "cooler' and more artistic. For that reason, and just because they are so "different", such plants are a breeding goal of mine. I refer to them as "threesies" and abbreviate that as "3Z" in my notes.

If you find any tricotyledonous seedlings, I think it might be worth your while to grow them and even treat them as potential "breeders". The objective is to have the plan-of-three continue up the main stalk of the plant.

ZM

Hello again, Enna,

I didn't mention it before, but sometimes I get asymmetric zinnia blooms, and I kind of like them, although they look nothing like regular zinnias. A couple of photographic examples. The first one has a free form shape, definitely not the classic zinnia circular shape.

That zinnia has "petaloids" instead of petals. This next one also has exotic petals, but in a bloom that is approximately triangular.I would like it if its plant were also triangular, but that wasn't the case. Its plant was a classic zinnia plant.

Anyhow, give your tricotyledonous seedlings a chance to show you what they can do.

ZM