Sexual reproduction can occur in both small and large plants.
> Like Nepenthes. Anyway, there's a way around that too... Just
> mail someone pollen, if you can (Andrew, I sent the pollen to you).
> Truely, I think you're underestimating genetic diversity. What I
> mean to say is each person will manage to keep their easily grown
> plants for their own selective conditions thereby *increasing*
> the overall genetic diversity. In this way, so long as sexual
> reproduction is kept fairly common, my plants will be more different
> than your plants, while plants growing wild near each other will be
And what if you exchange pollen with me? Doesn't that contradict this
genetic isolation between growers?
> more similar, overall. That's an increase in diversity, right?
> Keep in mind that evolution doesn't just happen, something must
> start killing off what would normally be a viable (and valuable) trait
> to make room for what is new.
Dave, where does genetic diversity (genetic variation) originate?
It comes from mutations, which occur at a very slow rate in nature.
Sexual reproduction will shuffle the alleles for each gene but will
not create new alleles. I think you are overestimating the number of
sexually reproducing generations occurring under the care of a single
grower. Most growers change their growing conditions from time to
time, too. Trade and new purchases counter isolation.
I hope someone can step in an post some basic genetics so we can
start this discussion on a sound footing. I'm spending too
much time posting here! Where are the other "scientists"? :-)
Michael Chamberland