Secondary intergradation and genome incompatibility in Phlox pilosa (polemoniaceae)

Abstract

Phlox pilosa ssp.pilosa andP. pilosa ssp.fulgida form a zone of secondary intergradation extending from northern Illinois and Indiana along the prairie-forest border to southwestern Missouri. The structure of the zone was analyzed in Illinois and Indiana. Trichome morphology offered the only diagnostic characteristic. Character gradients in the zone are highly irregular and steeply sloping. Closely adjacent populations often have disparate phenotype distributions. Most populations are strongly skewed toward the parental ends of the morphological spectrum. The properties of the zone are attributed to genome incompatibility, which is seen in the crossability barriers between the two subspecies and between the subspecies and hybrids, a reduction in pollen fertility, anther size and fecundity in hybrids, and the formation of multiple nucleoli in the hybrids. Subspeciesfulgida appears to be the primary recipient of alien gene flow. However, the position of the zone ostensibly is stabilized by the presence of an ecological barrier.