CYTOTAXONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN AND NORTH AMERICAN ROSTRATE VIOLETS

• Published in: New Phytologist
• Main Author: HARVEY, M. J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1966
• Subjects: North Atlantic; Beringia
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1966.tb05970.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1469-8137.1966.tb05970.x; https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-8137.1966.tb05970.x

S ummary Four European and three North American species of Viola belonging to subsection Rostratae were investigated cytotaxonomically to determine the likelihood of a past trans‐Atlantic migration of genomes. By analysis of meiotic pairing in hybrids it was concluded that two species, V. rupestris and V. adunca , were closely related, but from geographical evidence it seemed more likely that some ancestral species had migrated from Asia to North America via Beringia and not across the north Atlantic region. In most hybrids there was considerable failure of chromosome pairing at meiosis and it was concluded that there are no close trans‐Atlantic relationships between the remaining species despite their interesting geographical distributions which had partly suggested the investigation in the first place. The chromosome numbers and distributions of the plants investigated are reported.