A comparative study of the Lupinus parviflorus complex
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The taxonomic history of the genus Lupinus began with Linnaeus who adopted Tournefort's term. Even a cursory look at the subsequent history of the genus brings to the forefront the diversity of opinions that have been expressed among those taxonomists who have investigated the various taxa of lupines. It should be noted, however, that these early taxonomists were forced to attempt an understanding of the genus by making observations on the morphology alone. However, even in more recent years a divergence of opinion has been expressed in spite of the rather widespread acceptance of the "biological species" concept and broader understanding of the processes of speciation. It was an awareness of the confusion in the genus that suggested an integrated approach, making use of as many of the modern tools of taxonomic research as possible, be taken to investigate a small group of lupines. The small flowered, perennial lupines of the mountainous areas surrounding the Great Basin of the western United States were delimited as a suitable group of taxa to work on. Investigations proceeded on these taxa in three areas. A preliminary field survey of the principal pollinators and their behavioral characteristics was made in an attempt to find the correlation, if any, between flower size and the size of the pollinators. Ultimately a quantification of the gene flow, actual and/or potential, will be necessary before the origin of variability within the genus can be understood. In a second are a of investigation, a survey of the alkaloid spectra of the Lupinus parviflorus complex and allied taxa was made. The set of non-morphological characters available in the alkaloids of each taxon represented another group of characters from which relationships between taxa could be evaluated. The alkaloids present in each of the taxa were examined with the aid of thin layer chromatographic techniques. Finally, in spite of the fact that alkaloids provide an additional set of descriptors for analysis of these small flowered lupine taxa, morphology remains the most practical way of evaluating genetic relationships between such taxa. Modern techniques of computer aided numerical analysis were employed to evaluate the characters traditionally used to describe lupines. Once the characters were evaluated, those that are most efficient at describing the taxa can be used to construct a model based on the overall phenetic similarity of the taxa. Such phenetic models serve as a useful context for relating other types of data such as those attained from field studies, distributional patterns, chromosome counts, chemotaxonomic studies, etc. The integrated results of the pollinator study, the chemotaxonomic analysis of the alkaloids and the taximetric analysis of themorphology were used to interpret the relationships of the Lupinus parviflorus complex and allied taxa. The relationships between these taxa a represented in the taxonomic treatment, along with descriptions, distribution maps and illustrations of representative specimens of each taxon.
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