Discovery of a Possibly Relict Outbreeding Morphotype of Sparrow's-egg Lady's-slipper Orchid, Cypripedium passerinum, in Southwestern Yukon

Authors

  • Paul M. Catling Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Environmental Health, Biodiversity, Wm. Saunders Building, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0C6
  • Bruce A. Bennett Department of Environment, Government of the Yukon, Box 2703, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada Y1A 2C6

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v121i3.477

Keywords:

Sparrow's-egg Lady's-slipper Orchid, Cypripedium passerinum, Orchidaceae, autogamy, self-pollination, unglaciated, Beringia, Kluane, Yukon

Abstract

An outbreeding morphotype of Cypripedium passerinum with separate anthers and stigma was discovered in the Beringian region of southwestern Yukon. The occurrence of this breeding system in Beringia is attributed to the persistent advantage of outbreeding over hundreds of thousands of years in this unglaciated area, whereas the widespread occurrence of exclusively self-pollinating races elsewhere in Canada is attributed to advantages in colonization of recently deglaciated territory which first became available less than 10,000 years ago, and/or to a changing and more forested habitat.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 121 No. 3 (2007)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright for Canadian Field-Naturalist content is held by the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, except for content published by employees of federal government departments, in which case the copyright is held by the Crown. In-copyright content available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library is available for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. For usage of content at the BHL for purposes other than those allowed under this licence, contact us.

 

To request use of copyright material,  please contact our editor, Dr. Dwayne Lepitzki: editor -at- canadianfieldnaturalist -dot- ca