Wedoany.com Report, On March 15, at the rapeseed flower experimental base of Jiangxi Agricultural University in China, clusters of brightly colored flowers were proudly in full bloom. Reporters learned that five new flower colors have been newly bred this year, bringing the total number of colored rapeseed flower varieties to 80.
It is reported that the research team led by Researcher Fu Donghui at Jiangxi Agricultural University has increased the total number of flower colors from 75 to 80 through various breeding methods such as hybridization, backcrossing, and selfing. The five newly bred colors are Tiger Skin Orange, Deep Rose Red, Metallic Shimmer Purple, Lavender Purple, and Blood Glutinous Rice Red. This year's colored rapeseed flowers feature rich, saturated hues and excellent traits, resulting in a comprehensive upgrade in their ornamental value.
"This year's colored rapeseed flowers are characterized by deep color, rich saturation, and excellent comprehensive traits, resulting in a comprehensive upgrade in their ornamental value for better viewing," Fu Donghui told reporters. More importantly, the number of stable flower colors has increased from 42 to 46. The four newly stabilized colors—Blood Orange Red, Extreme Rose Red, Extreme Rust Red, and Brick Pink—have been finally stabilized after years of breeding. This means they will bloom in the same colors next year, the year after, and every year thereafter, laying a solid foundation for large-scale promotion and application.
It's not just about more colors. This year, the team has also achieved three major breakthroughs in the field of ornamental rapeseed breeding: they have successfully bred a new line of Jasmine-scented extra-large flower rapeseed, which not only boasts a rich and long-lasting jasmine fragrance but also features the advantage of extra-large flower size with fully expanded and plump petals, offering strong visual impact; they have cultivated a series of dwarf potted colored rapeseed varieties with compact and sturdy plant structures suitable for container cultivation, meeting diverse decoration needs for home balconies, office settings, and small landscapes, injecting new vitality into the urban "balcony economy" and the miniature gardening industry.
Simultaneously, they have successfully bred leaf-color variant strains such as albino leaves, red leaves, and purple leaves, as well as stem-color variant strains like pink-purple stems, albino stems, and purple-red stems. This breaks the limitation of traditional ornamental rapeseed being focused solely on flower petals during the blooming period and being one-dimensional, creating a three-dimensional ornamental effect while retaining core agronomic traits, making them suitable for diverse application scenarios.
