Life Sciences Commons^™

Developmental Variation And Distyly In Hedyotis Caerulea (Rubiaceae), Dennis A. Sampson, Robert A. Krebs

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

The development of distyly is thought to arise from differential growth patterns in the pin and thrum morphs. However, few detailed studies exist on the early floral development of distylous flowers, and fewer still look at variation in these traits among populations. Buds at multiple stages of development were collected from five populations of Hedyotis caerulea to quantify how pins and thrums diverge with respect to the initiation, rate, and termination of growth between the stamens and stigmas. The growth rate of anthers varied little spatially across five populations and temporally in both pins and thrums, although thrum anthers grew …