E
Eric Muehlbauer
Guest
"But then, as you say, you have a different species ... and if that happened in the wild ... then the original tetraploid "specimen" must have become immediately isolated and must have propagated vegetatively only .... ????
How the hell would that work???"
True....but, given the 1000's of years that these plants are growing and reproducing in this area....in the case of R. calendulaceum, the Appalachians, where there is (or at least was) tremendous diversity of azalea species, variants, and natural hybrids, if you have more than one tetraploid mutation in the pollinator's area, you could have successful progeny of those plants. From that point on, the tetraploid population would increase, eventually forming what I would imagine a taxonomist would consider a valid species. At any 1 moment in time, the likelihood of 2 tetraploid mutations appearing at the same time in the same area is very low...but given the 1000's of years, possibly more if the parent species shifted south during glaciations, wouldn't the likelihood be much greater?
How the hell would that work???"
True....but, given the 1000's of years that these plants are growing and reproducing in this area....in the case of R. calendulaceum, the Appalachians, where there is (or at least was) tremendous diversity of azalea species, variants, and natural hybrids, if you have more than one tetraploid mutation in the pollinator's area, you could have successful progeny of those plants. From that point on, the tetraploid population would increase, eventually forming what I would imagine a taxonomist would consider a valid species. At any 1 moment in time, the likelihood of 2 tetraploid mutations appearing at the same time in the same area is very low...but given the 1000's of years, possibly more if the parent species shifted south during glaciations, wouldn't the likelihood be much greater?