Abstract
TheCalyptridium umbellatum complex (Portulacaceae), which has been treated as including from one to nine species, is shown to comprise three morphologically distinctive species. Two of these are common, wide-ranging, montane perennial herbs—C. umbellatum, which occurs over a large part of western North America, andC. monospermum, which largely replacesC. umbellatum in cismontane California. The third member of the complex is the rare or possibly extinctC. pulchellum. The perennial members of this complex are accorded the status of a separate genus,Spraguea, by most authors, but a comparative study of the morphology and karyology of all species ofCalyptridium shows this separation to be unwarranted. Chromosome numbers ofn = 22, obtained from eight populations ofC. umbellatum and six ofC. monospermum, constitute the first reported counts for these species. Hybridization studies involvingC. umbellatum andC. monospermum indicate that they are isolated by an incomplete noncrossability barrier.
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This paper is part of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley. I am deeply grateful to Robert Ornduff, Lincoln Constance, and Grady Webster, the members of my thesis committee, for their help. Valuable seed collections were provided by Maynard Moe. Much of the research was accomplished during the tenure of a National Science Foundation predoctoral fellowship. Travel funds were provided in part by the Society of the Sigma Xi and the University of California Patent Fund.
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Hinton, W.F. Systematics of the calyptridium umbellatum complex (Portulacaceae). Brittonia 27, 197–208 (1975). https://doi.org/10.2307/2805891
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2805891