“…Prior work on P. amabilis identified populations with three ploidies: diploids, tetraploids, and hexaploids (Fehlberg and Ferguson, 2012a, b). Cytotypic variation in other species of Phlox L. is well documented (Flory, 1934; Meyer, 1944; Levin, 1966; Smith and Levin, 1967; Levy and Levin, 1974; Worcester et al, 2012; Zale and Jourdan, 2015; Wright et al, 2016; Zale et al, 2016). Moreover, morphological (Zhang et al, 2008; Tiwari and Mishra, 2012) and ecological (Garbutt and Bazzaz, 1983; Vyas et al, 2007) effects of polyploidy have been documented in synthetic polyploids of other species of Phlox .…”