Lilium lancifolium Thunb, is the only polyploid species complex consisting of 2x (2n=24) and 3x (2n=36) forms in the genus, both of which are highly self‐sterile. They are cytologically differentiated into various nucleolar types by number and combination of four kinds of nucleolar chromosomes. The 3x form is widespread from the North‐East district of China to the Japanese Islands through the Korean Peninsula. However, the 2x form is localized and grows singly or together with the 3x form in the narrow zone from southern Korea to the Tsushima Islands, Japan. The 2x form reproduces by sexual as well as by asexual means, but a sterile 3x form has asexually persisted to the present. Generally speaking, the 3x form is the allotriploid which has originated from hybridization between a 2x form and a closely related species such as L. maximowiczii in the remote past. In the present study, another possibility for the presence of the autotriploid form is newly proposed based on its karyotype and geographic distribution.
There are two cytogenetically well differentiated genomes, A (x = 8) and B (x = 9), in the Scilla scilloides complex. The principal cytogenetic types form an aneuploidal series of chromosome numbers, i.e., AA (2n = 16), BB (2n = 18), ABB (2n = 26), BBB (2n = 27), AABB (2n = 34), ABBB (2n = 35), BBBB (2n = 36), and AABBB (2n = 43). These types are widespread in the Japanese islands, excepting AA which is confined to Korea. On the contrary diploid BB is not known from Korea. However, polyploids AABB and AABBB are known from both Japan and Korea. Plants of the complex do not grow in wild lands or montane regions, but in close relation to man's activities, e.g., in agricultural lands, on river banks, along roadways and railway lines, and in graveyards. Natural populations are, as a rule, a mixture of many different cytogenetic types.
Plants of Allium monanthum Maxim., whose gender expression are usually dioecious, but rarely hermaphrodite or gynomonoecious, proved to constitute a polyploid complex, consisting of diploid, triploid, and tetraploid individuals. The basic chromosome complement of this species consists of seven metacentric or submetacentric chromosomes and one acrocentric, the latter possessing a satellite on the short arm. Thus, the karyotype formula is expressed as 7V+11 (x=8). The diploid plants (2n = 16) were confined to central Honshu, Japan. Typical female plants possessed the standard karyotype, whereas male plants were heterozygous for two kinds of translocations. The 3x plants (2n=24) are somewhat widely distributed in the areas from the Kanto to Hokuriku district in Honshu. All female triploid plants possessed the standard karyotype. The geographical distribution of 4x plants (2n=32) which express mostly a female phenotype occurred nearly throughout the whole areas investigated; they are geographically isolated from the 2x plants. A majority of 4x plants had the standard karyotype. The remaining tetraploids were of the aberrant type, 4x/51, which has five acrocentric chromosomes, and two aneuploids 4x+1 and 4x‐1. Both 3x and 4x forms seem to be of autopolyploid origin. Three kinds of aberrant nucleolar chromosomes with an extra satellite or an inseried secondary constriction were found in the heterozygotes for translocations of 2x plants and also in some plants of the 3x form. These aberrant plants usually form their own homogeneous populations, but were somewhat scattered throughout the range in their distribution. Thus, these individuals are considered to have perpetuated these types of chromosome aberrations which originated in the remote past.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.