CENTENNIAL HONORS COLLEGE
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2015
Poster Presentation
Field Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) Cross Pollination in Greenhouse
James Rudy
Faculty Mentor: Winthrop Phippen
Agriculture
Field Pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) is predominately a self-pollinated winter annual weed species that
is currently being studied as a new source of industrial products and biodiesel. Previous research has
indicated pennycress pollen can be transferred by wind.
The objective of this study is to determine the percentage of cross pollination that occurs in a greenhouse
setting between pennycress varieties.
Two contrasting pennycress varieties were used for this experiment, non-seed dormant spring type
‘Spring 32’ and dormant winter type ‘Beecher’. ‘Beecher’ plants were pre-treated with a cold period and
were grown to flower at the same time as ‘Spring 32’. Eight different clusters of five plants were
arranged in the greenhouse. Each cluster had either a spring plant in the center or winter plant surrounded
by the contrasting plant. Each cluster was separated with six feet of spacing. All plants were grown to
maturity and seeds were collected. One hundred seeds from each plant in the center of each cluster was
germinated on moistened filter paper and scored for germination.
Spring plants surrounded by other spring plants results in 100% germination whereas, the control winter
plants resulted in 0% germination. Seeds from spring plants surrounded by winter resulted in 100%
germination while winter plants surrounded by spring had inconclusive results.
Understanding cross pollination in controlled conditions will be essential if greenhouses are to be used in
developing new varieties of pennycress. Additional replicates of this study are needed to confirm our
results.