Allopolyploidization and evolution of species with reduced floral structures in Lepidium L. (Brassicaceae).

ABSTRACT: Understanding the pattern of speciation in a group of plants is critical for understanding its morphological evolution. Lepidium is the genus with the largest variation in floral structure in Brassicaceae, a family in which the floral ground plan is remarkably stable. However, flowers in more than half of Lepidium species have reduced stamen numbers, and most of these also have reduced petals. The species with reduced flowers are geographically biased, distributed mostly in the Americas and Australia New Zealand. Previous phylogenetic studies using noncoding regions of chloroplast DNA and rDNA internal transcribed spacer were incongruent in most New World species relationships. These data, combined with the presence of many polyploid Lepidium species, implied a reticulate history of the ge

SUBMITTER: Lee JY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC139230 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature