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Type: Article
Published: 2011-12-23
Page range: 1–18
Abstract views: 17
PDF downloaded: 1

Oreocharis × heterandra (Gesneriaceae): a natural hybrid from the Shengtangshan Mountains, Guangxi, China

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, Scotland, UK
Guangxi Institute of Botany, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guilin 541006, China
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, Scotland, UK Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Life Science, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR, Scotland, UK
Eudicots Cytology hybrid sterility ITS molecular data morphology Oreocharis argyreia Oreocharis magnidens recurrent hybridisation trnL-F

Abstract

Macro- and micro-morphological characters, molecular nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer and chloroplast trnL-F intron-spacer data confirmed the hybrid status of Oreocharis × heterandra. Cytological studies showed that the parental species and the hybrid possess 2n=34 chromosomes, suggesting that chromosome translocations, not dysploid or ploidy level changes, are the cause of the high hybrid sterility. Recurrent reciprocal hybridisation between its parental species O. argyreia and O. magnidens in an area of secondary contact is apparently responsible for the persistent presence of the hybrids, though at low levels. As a consequence the name Oreocharis heterandra has to be changed to Oreocharis × heterandra.