Cucumber plants show different growth depending on whether they inherit certain traits from the mother or father. By creating special cucumber plants with doubled chromosomes, scientists found that hybrids of these plants grew better than their parents. Some hybrids grew up to 30% more than expected. When a specific mutant trait was inherited from the father, the plants didn't grow as well. Also, some hybrids grew differently depending on whether the mother or father passed on their traits. This means that when breeding new cucumber varieties, it's important to consider both directions of the cross to get the best results.