Flora Montiberica
41
: 3-9 (I-2009). ISSN 1138-59523
A NEW WILD HYBRID IN
LAVATERA
(MALVACEAE)
Ana JUAN & Manuel B. CRESPO
CIBIO, Instituto de la Biodiversidad. Universidad de Alicante. P.O. Box 99.E-03080 Alicante. Correo electrónico: ana.juan@ua.es, crespo@ua.es
ABSTRACT
: A new nothotaxon
Lavatera
×
columbretensis
Juan & M.B. Crespo isdescribed from the Columbretes Archipelago (E of Spain). Several morphological fea-tures (e.g. pedicel, epicalyx and corolla length) assessed the existence of individualsmorphologically intermediate between
L. arborea
and
L. mauritanica
subsp.
davaei
.Statistical analyses (PCA) supported segregation of three different groups, corre-sponding to both cited species and the new hybrid. The current hybridization processcould be explained as a direct consequence of the strong isolation of that peculiar is-land habitat.
Key words:
Lavatera
, islands, hybridization, Spain.
RESUMEN
: Se describe un nuevo nototaxon,
Lavatera
×
columbretensis
Juan &M.B. Crespo, del archipiélago de las Columbretes (E de la Península Ibérica). Diversascaracterísticas morfológicas (e.g. longitud del pedicelo, del epicáliz y de la corola) re-velan la presencia de individuos híbridos. Los análisis estadísticos (PCA) apoyan laexistencia de tres grupos claros, que corresponderían a
L. arborea
,
L. mauritanica
subsp.
davaei
, y al nuevo híbrido. Este proceso de hibridación podría considerarse co-mo una consecuencia directa del marcado aislamiento de este hábitat insular.
Palabrasclave:
Lavatera
, islas, hibridación, España.
INTRODUCTION
The Malvaceae family comprises se-veral examples of introgression and hy-bridization on well known genera such as
Hibiscus
or
Gossypum
(MENZEL
&
WIL-SON, 1963;
BRUBAKER
& al., 1999 am-ong others). However, these events of na-tural hybridization are not so common inother genera such as
Lavatera
. In the Ibe-rian flora, FERNANDES (1993) only in-dicated the presence of hybrid individualsbetween
L. olbia
L. and
L. triloba
L. Ho-wever, natural hybrids appeared to be mo-re frequent in the close genus
Malva
(cf.FERNANDES, 1993).The taxa
Lavatera arborea
L. and
L.mauritanica
Durieu subsp.
davaei
(Cout.)Cout. belong to
L
. sect.
Anthema
(Medik.)DC., which is mainly characterised bystar-shaped hairs and seeds hidden by thepericarps. The former shows a wide dis-tribution along the littoral Spanish territo-ries (including islands), whereas the latterpresents isolated and reduced coastal po-pulations in the eastern and southern partsof the Iberian Peninsula (FENANDES,1993).These two taxa show well-developednatural populations in the volcanic archi-pelago of Columbretes, due to the clima-tic and ecological features together to theremarkable isolation of these particularislands. Both
Lavatera
grow on soilsstrongly nitrified by depositions (“gua
-
no”) of sea-birds, mainly
Larus audouinii
and
L. cachinnans
. However, both
Lava-tera
taxa do not show the same pattern of
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