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Interspecific hybridization and its evolutionary significance in the genus Aquilegia

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Abstract

Various hybrid combinations of 18 species and varieties ofAquilegia were produced, and several cross-pollinations were made which failed to produce hybrids. Pollen fertility of hybrids was generally high, with a total mean of approximately 50%, but highly variable among hybrid combinations and consistently lower than that of parental species. With the exception of frequent occurrence of giant pollen grains and rare synaptic failure of one or two homologous pairs, meiotic behavior in hybrid pollen mother cells appeared to be completely regular.

Representatives of the Vulgaris Complex were observed to be intermediate genetically and morphologically leading to the interpretation of ancestral status among extant species. The greatest genetic diversity within the genus was shown to exist betweenA. ecalcarata and members of the Caerulea Complex.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Western Washington State College, Bellingham, Washington

    Ronald J. Taylor

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  1. Ronald J. Taylor
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This paper is adapted from a thesis submitted to Washington State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The advice and direction of Dr. Marion Ownbey, Professor of Botany and Genetics, is gratefully acknowledged.

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Taylor, R.J. Interspecific hybridization and its evolutionary significance in the genus Aquilegia. Brittonia 19, 374–390 (1967). https://doi.org/10.2307/2805535

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