| Abstract Detail
Ecological Section Devall, Margaret [1], Thien, Leonard [2]. Variation among populations of Ipomoea pes-caprae (Convolvulaceae) growing around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Ipomoea pes-caprae (L.) Roth (railroad vine) is a pantropical, perennial, trailing vine with showy pink flowers and water-dispersed seeds. It grows on coastal beaches and dunes throughout the tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Its success as a colonizer of tropical shorelines may be attributed to the production of large numbers of fruits, long life cycle, high potential for water dispersal, resistance to salt spray, rapid growth, large neighborhood size and vegetative reproduction. The species is important as a sand colonizer and plays a significant role in geomorphology. We investigated phenotypic variation in traits of plants from 15 populations in a common garden study to differentiate the populations phenologically and morphologically. Most of the differences found were between populations around the Gulf of Mexico and populations on distant islands. When the north and south Gulf coast populations were considered as two groups, only one character out of 14 differed. While populations on small islands should receive fewer, more variable immigrants from a number of different sources, the currents in the Gulf of Mexico should promote gene exchange among populations along the Gulf coast, and therefore less variability.
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1 - U.S. Forest Service, Center for Bottomland Hardwoods Research, P.O. Box 227, Stoneville, MS, 38776, USA
2 - Tulane University, Cell and Molecular Biology Department, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA
Keywords:
common garden study
strand vegetation.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Sections
Session: 30
Location: 212/SUB
Date: Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Time: 8:00 AM
Number: 30001
Abstract ID:663 |
