I'm trying to help my boyfriend and his family preserve the genetics of their backyard garden. The family has lived in the same house for decades but they're now selling it.
They're Filipino, so one thing I've tried very hard to save is their calamansi tree. Its not an unusual cultivar, but its fruit has been a core part of the family's home cooking. Food, as an expression of love and a way of welcoming guests to the home, is a huge part of Filipino culture. That makes this plant a big part of many cherished memories, via the food its fruit helped to produce. So it was a no-brainer to attempt to propagate it, so it could (in some form) stay in the family's possession.
In addition to taking cuttings, I collected seeds as a sort of insurance policy; in case the cuttings failed, the seed-grown plants would ensure the presence of something with a link to the original tree, even though it would likely take years to bear fruit. It seems like at least one of the cuttings is rooting, but I'm keeping the seedlings, in part because I've noticed something peculiar. One does not look like the other two. It's growing faster, its cotyledons are smaller, and its true leaves have winged petioles. My guess is that the adjacent tangelo tree (cultivar unknown) was the pollen parent.
Photos attached. I will attempt to grow all three. If the weird one ends up bearing fruit, and that fruit is clearly not calamansi (both of these are big "if"s), then I will name it and distribute it (likely years from now).
