Lycoris/ Peony Ploidy
James Waddick (Fri, 13 Feb 2004 07:49:46 PST)

Dear Jamie;
You wrote:
"I find it interesting that, once again, the high ploidies prove a bit
hardier."

I don't think this would ever come to my mind that northern/
hardier species are triploid or tetraploid.

In Lycoris, L. chinensis is much hardier than L aurea and
both have 2n=16. L. squamigera, one of the hardiest with 3n=27 is a
lot hardier than L. radiata radiata (3n = 33) and both are triploids.

There are a few peony pairs such as P. obovata and P.
japonica; and P. wittmanniana and P. mlokosewitschii. In both pairs
the first is diploid (2n=10) and second tetraploid (2n = 20), but
their distributions essentially overlap.

Further there are both 2n=10 and 2n=20 wild collected Paeonia obovata.

Paeonia anomala, the very hardiest of all peonies is a
diploid, too (2n=10)

Hardiness doesn't seem obvious as an attribute related to
ploidy? Any other examples?

Jim W.

--
Dr. James W. Waddick
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