Tricotyledons ?

[coreopsis]

I have 3 brussel sprouts and 1 tomato with 3 leaves.If you hadn't started talking about it probably I would have never noticed the difference.Eh,learning...

[StephenH]

Interesting. My tricot aubergine is just as stong and the same height as the others but is bushier.

Well, the fact that my tricot tom is weak may be coincidental: maybe it's just the runt of the litter, and the number of seed-leaves is nothing to do with it.

[GardeningMike]

tricotyledonous seedlings...

Forgive the crummy focus! This Black Beauty aubergine seedling has an extra seed leaf. I've done a bit of googling (they can't touch you for it!) and someone reckons it occurs in 1 in every 43 seedlings. So why haven't I seen it before? I've sown MILLIONS in my time. Well, thousands!

The suggestion is that three and even four leaf seedlings occur when 2 seeds are fused together - which makes a bit of sense. However, the person posting this also said that these seedlings tend to be weaker. No sign of this here (yet). He also said that using these to cross in his plant breeding gave rise to one in 13, so it's passed on. Not much use if they're weaker though.

Anyway - has anyone else got one?

I have observed tricots in tomato (a solanaceous species as aubergine) though I did not find these to be weaker. Such seedlings only appeared to have one apical bud (not two) and they seemed to develop normally. Intuition informs that they have a better start in life as they have 50% more food reserves packed away in the cotyledons for seedling growth & development before photosynthesis takes over in the first pair of true leaves, so I am suprised by the plant breeder saying they are weaker.

[GardeningMike]

Tricots in parsnip and parsley seedlings too...

I have seen tricots in parsley and parsnip too. I suspect that they are fairly common.