The name of this plant derives from the likelihood that it could have ever been created. The summer of 1997 was the first year that my 1994 crosses of the triploid species H. fulva 'Europa' with various tetraploids (mostly) bloomed. In 1994, I divided my patch of 'Europa' into four sections with a crosshatch of wires. In the first section I crossed the blooms with pollen from yellow tets; in the second, orange and gold tets; in the third, pink tets; in the fourth, rose tets and ED MURRAY. At the time I had a suspicion that ED MURRAY might be a triploid (though hybridized from diploids, and registered as a diploid); at any rate, I knew its pollen would successfully (though sparingly) set seed on tetraploids, so I used it. I noticed that I got 100% pod set with the ED MURRAY pollen, but all of the pods fell off.... or at least, so I thought until I saw this flower. Apparently one pod survived and was not from the rose tets I had used, as I previously thought.

This plant has several firsts. It is the first registered tetraploid created from the cross of a triploid with a diploid, if you believe the AHS registration checklists, or with another triploid, if you believe me, as I am almost certain from my various tests that ED MURRAY is a triploid. It is, as far as I can determine, the first registered tetraploid which is a child of the species H. fulva 'Europa'. It is the first registered tetraploid which does not have colchicine or similar chemical treatment, or irradiation, in its ancestry; that is, it was created "naturally". (A few other tets have been created by similar means, but are registered as diploids or chimeras.) Assuming ED MURRAY is a triploid, I estimate the odds of producing this plant are about 1 in 10,000, so I really lucked out.

During the summer, as I set pods on this plant, and as I used its pollen on the blooms of various red tetraploids, I could not really determine whether it was a triploid or a tetraploid, as the pod set was good, but not as good as would be expected from a really fertile tet. You can see pods forming here, from about half of the crosses to the plant, using pollen from my (very fertile) red tet seedling TR95-08. Photo by: Nick Chase.

Only in September, after I harvested the seeds, and also collected the pods from the red tets on which I'd used the pollen, could I be sure that Implausibility is a tetraploid. (The seed set rate is too high for it to be a triploid.) To be honest, I was hoping for a triploid, which would really have been a coup, but I'm still pleased with the results I got. This flower is by far the brightest red in my garden, and I expect it to be a powerful parent for my tetraploid hybridizing program: It carries two identical sets of 11 chromosomes from 'Europa', and two identical sets of 11 chromosomes from ED MURRAY.... the effect being similar to the doubling of chromosomes in a colchicine-induced tetraploid. Photo by: Nick Chase.

Implausibility is also rhizomatous.... so I am now on my way to fulfilling my original hybridizing goal, creating attractive tetraploid daylilies that will spread like H. fulva 'Europa' and will therefore be useful for mass landscaping. A single fan (off a rhizome) went to Ron Valente in May 1998 for growing, testing, and eventual introduction (that is, be for sale). Ron grew it in his greenhouse over the 1998-1999 winter, and he says it grows like a weed. Actually, in my opinion it probably is a weed, at least to the extent that H. fulva 'Europa' is a weed. I don't know if future generations will thank me, or curse me, for creating this plant. Time will tell.

In July 1999, through the camera lens (I now have magnifying screw-on adapters) it looks like IMPLAUSIBILITY carries the scattered large pollen grains characteristic of ED MURRAY and its descendents THORNBIRD and NORMAN LEE HENNEL (see discussion under Hexxed); so, encouraged by my limited success in cross-ploidy hybridizing last year, I am putting IMPLAUSIBILITY's pollen on various diploids to see if I can set tetraploid seed.