New Zealand Journal of Botany abstract

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^* For part XI see Connor, H. E. 1990, New Zealand journal of botany 28: 59-65, on gynodioecism in Chionochloa bromoides.

B97076
Received 16 October 1997; accepted 21 January 1998

Breeding systems in New Zealand grasses XII. Cleistogamy in Festuca*

H. E. CONNOR

Department of Geography
University of Canterbury
Christchurch, New Zealand

"Cleistogamy is more common in grasses than in any other angiosperm family ..." (Campbell et al. 1983)

Abstract  Cleistogamy in Festuca is of a very simple form with floral expression primarily in anther size; it is a very low frequency phenomenon that occurs almost habitually in F. contracta on several peri-Antarctic islands, and in F. madida of Campbell Island and at high altitudes on the main islands of temperate New Zealand. Facultative cleistogamy occurs in Far East Arctic species, and in F. abyssinica of Africa. Reproduction in Festuca as a whole is centred around self-incompatibility; departures to cleistogamy are very simple evolutionary steps and do not compare for frequency and morphological development with that in the closely related genus Vulpia.

Keywords  Festuca; F. contracta; F. madida; Gramineae; cleistogamy; evolution; New Zealand Botanical Region; peri-Antarctic islands

Dedicated to the memory of Dr Paul Henri Auquier (1939-1980) formerly Départment de Botanique, Université de Liège, Belgique, whose comprehensive studies on the reproduction biology of Festuca are central to taxonomic and evolutionary interpretations in the genus.

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (489K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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