Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 08:54:18 -0700 From: Ivan Snyder <bioexp@juno.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2473$foo@default> Subject: re: Drosera regia - Dionaea Relation
>Hey listserver,Does anyone know the chromosome count
>on D.regia and D.muscipula.I think they are
>related.The flowers and seed are very similar.In
>D.muscipula the pollen is ready before the plant is
>receptive.The same is true in D.regia.Sometimes I even
>get the seed mixed up.Pretty soon I will make the
>cross.Petiolaris Sean
Jan:
>They definietly are. Besides the morphological similarities, genetic
>alignments place _D. regia_ (and not _D. falconeri_ or any other
>Lasiocephala; Hi Ivan, I do not buy your theory - but I doubt you
>believed I would, anyway!) at the very base of the genus _Drosera_,
>quite close to _Dionaea_.
Hi all, Ivan here,
This is a subject I find especially interesting. In the 1985 CPN December
issue I wrote the article 'Evolution of the Venus' Flytrap'. In the
article I detailed the evolutionary steps from sundew to VFT. At the
time, Drosera falconeri had recently been discovered. When I submitted
the article, Joseph Mazrimas wrote me that he felt that D. falconeri
might be an ancestor of VFT. After studying the plant myself, I do not
believe this is true. Still, the similarity in my hypothetical drawing in
the article, as Mr. Mazrimas suguested, is astonishing. This is why I say
that D. falconeri is representative of a missing link, though not
actually the genuine article.
After much study I feel that D. regia is the most closely related sundew
to VFT. In addition to the shared characteristics mentioned by Sean and
Jan here are the pollen. D. regia pollen is unlike any other sundew and
most like that of VFT. The chromosome counts are especially telling (if
correct). In biology there is a general rule in respect to archaic
species which have developed into more moderns and differing by one pair
of chromosomes, such as this case, VFT = 32, D. regia = 34. The older
species will actually have the higher count. This is because it is more
simple to lose a pair rather than gain one. This rule holds true with the
aboriginal horse having one pair of chromosomes more than the
domesticated horse. Also consider the chimpanzee has one pair more than
we Humans. Incedently, the wild horse ancestor and domestic horse may
interbreed and often produce fertile offspring, despite the chromosome
difference.
I have tried cross pollinations of many different sundews with VFT. All
will be surprised to hear that some did cross, though the hybrids did not
survive long. I have not had flowering of D. regia and VFT simultaneously
yet. I feel that maybe these two might be most compatible.
Ivan Snyder
Hermosa Beach
California
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