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Natural hybridization origin of Rhododendron agastum (Ericaceae) in Yunnan, China: inferred from morphological and molecular evidence

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Abstract

The natural hybridization that occurs between two sympatric species of Rhododendron subgenus Hymenanthes in Yunnan, China, was investigated. The assumed parents, Rhododendron delavayi Franch. and R. decorum Franch., are morphologically distinct, and the putative hybrid species, R. agastum Balf. f. et W. W. Smith, has an intermediate morphology. We used the main morphological characters, sequences of the nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS region, and the chloroplast DNA trnL-F intronspacer to analyze the three species, and compared these morphological and molecular data with an artificial hybrid between R. decorum (♀) × R. delavayi (♂). From the results, we conclude that R. agastum is a natural hybrid between a female R. delavayi and a male R. decorum.

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Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank the two anonymous reviewers and the subject editor Professor Hirokazu Tsukaya for valuable comments that improved the manuscript. We also thank Michael Möller, Roy Turkington and Stephen Blackmore for improving the English, Yuan Huang and Zhikun Wu for their help in the field, and Ruizheng Fang for identifying the specimens. This study was partially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan, China (No. 2003C0058M) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2003BA901A14 and No. 2005DKA21006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kunming Botanic Garden, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China

    Jing-Li Zhang & Chang-Qin Zhang

  2. The Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Jing-Li Zhang & Hong-Tao Li

  3. Laboratory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China

    Lian-Ming Gao, Jun-Bo Yang & Hong-Tao Li

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  1. Jing-Li Zhang
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  2. Chang-Qin Zhang
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  3. Lian-Ming Gao
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  4. Jun-Bo Yang
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  5. Hong-Tao Li
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Correspondence to Chang-Qin Zhang.

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Zhang, JL., Zhang, CQ., Gao, LM. et al. Natural hybridization origin of Rhododendron agastum (Ericaceae) in Yunnan, China: inferred from morphological and molecular evidence. J Plant Res 120, 457–463 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-007-0076-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-007-0076-1

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