Subject: Re: Plants-Speciation

From: [email-masked] (Howard Ecklund)
Date: 31 Jul 1996 16:08:37 -0500

In both plants and animals taxonomists have tried to claim that the species is
the only natural "natural taxonomic catagory".  The mule is an extreme examplt
example of an interspecies cross.  I don't have a mammals book handy and I
don't remember is the horse and donkey are in the genus.  However, most
congenerics can interbreed.  The resulting offspring may or may not be
sterile.  The next test is whether the offspring will "breed true".  
If you cross a white flower with a red flower the seeds that result might
produce pink flowers (or white or red or something else including none) but if
it does flower the seeds of that plant will often produce some white some red
and maybe something else.  
The marvelous divesity in domestic flowers is based on the ability of breeders
to figure out how those crosses behave and select the right set of parents to
produce the appropriate seeds to produce what they want.  Hybridization is
both a boon and a bane to gardeners.  The boon is a diverse array of plants
with appropriate traits for their purposees.  The bane is that saving the
seeds of a favorite variety of flower or tomato will not allow the
reproduction of a plant with the parents characteristics.  
Finally, I would like to echo the warning that for the most part a discussion
of the "exact" definition of "species" will lead into a mine field of
differing views on how to determine what the definition "should be".  In this
case do not as Rush as Scirpus sp. 8-)>>>