Barriers to sexual reproduction in Polygonum viviparum: a comparative developmental analysis of P. viviparum and P. bistortoides.

ABSTRACT: Polygonum viviparum is widely distributed in arctic and alpine regions of the northern hemisphere. Fruit set has never been observed in North American populations and has been reported only very rarely in Europe. Although this species is extremely well studied, the impediments to successful fruit production are unknown. We investigated the sexual reproductive process in P. viviparum growing in the southern Colorado Rocky Mountains. For comparison, we also examined this process in the sympatric congener P. bistortoides, in which reproduction is exclusively sexual. Lack of viable fruit production in P. viviparum has no single developmental explanation; defects occur in each of the processes and structures associated with sexual reproduction studied, yet, these processes and structures also a

SUBMITTER: Diggle PK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4233787 | biostudies-literature | 2002 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature