Fritz Schomburg triploid and tetraploid

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Beautiful. Can OL still do chromosome counts?
In addition to chromosome counts being difficult/tedious, they may not always tell us what we want to know. A plant could have important mutations in genes without having extra chromosomes. I think the terms polyploid and “mixaploids” are getting at the fact that plants like these have popped up since the beginning of orchid collecting. Bigger, thicker leaves and bigger, thicker flowers. Some may be fully tetraploid, but many might just have mutations in particular genes. Chromosome counts would miss all of these. I would guess that full genome analysis of orchids like we use to find human mutations is a long way off because of finances.
 
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