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EVOLUTIONARY STUDIES OF ATRIPLEX: A RELIC GIGAS DIPLOID POPULATION OF ATRIPLEX CANESCENS
Author(s) -
Stutz Howard C.,
Melby James M.,
Livingston Gordon K.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1975.tb12349.x
Subject(s) - ploidy , biology , botany , population , atriplex , germination , genetics , demography , sociology , gene
Growing on shifting sand dunes in central Utah is a small endemic population of a gigas form of A triplex canescens. Whereas normal A. canescens usually grows to a height of three to four feet and occasionally to five or six feet, the gigas form often reaches ten and sometimes twelve feet. All normal A. canescens so far examined (67 populations) have 2n = 36 chromosomes; the gigas form has 2n = 18 chromosomes. Several lines of evidence suggest that the gigas form is a relic diploid and the normal form is an autotetraploid derived from it. The growth rate of seedlings and new twigs is nearly twice as great in the diploid as in the tetraploid. Seed germination is faster and much better in the diploid. The tetraploid is reproductively isolated from the diploid because of a much earlier flowering period. The diploid plants possess many attributes which make them uniquely adapted to the drifting sand dune habitat.