Calling all botanists from Eastern Europe or Asia! Are you affiliated with or know of a botanical garden or natural area that may have Lythrum virgatum (European wand loosestrife)? I'd be interested in contacting them to see if they can send me some seeds. (I have already tried several major germplasm databases as well as a call through BGCI and have found lots of L. salicaria (purple loosestrife) but no L. virgatum.)
I'm including a link to the best description for distinguishing L. virgatum from L. salicaria.
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200014659
You could purchase the plant and harvest your own seeds? Or visit a botanical garden? A curator may be able to supply them. Or buy on Amazon lol :-)
Lythrum salicaria ,Lythraceae is a famous species because Ch.Darwin noted Heterostly(tristlyly i adn since then extensive wrk on its genetic mechasm, populatio structure etc haxs been carried out. I wonder L.virgatum may also show si,ilar floral polymorphism Have a look please. I have done lot work on heterostylous plants from India
Did you already search the internet for seed catalogues (= Index seminum) from botanical gardens? A quick search now has resulted in a number of botanical gardens, which distributed Lythrum virgatum during the last years through their seed catalogues:
http://www.botanischer-garten.uni-erlangen.de/pdf/IS-2015-2016.pdf (Erlangen-Nürnberg, Gemany, who have got the plants from HB Paris)
http://www.linz.at/images/Samenliste_Botanischer_Garten_2015.pdf (Linz, Austria)
http://lepo.it.da.ut.ee/~jsild/ebgconsortiumindexseminum2014.pdf (Tartu, Estonia)
http://www.garten.uni-rostock.de/fileadmin/Mathnat_Bio_Garten/Index_Seminum_2015_BG_Rostock.pdf (Rostock, Germany)
http://phavi.umcs.pl/at/attachments/2014/0327/151101-index-seminum.pdf (Lublin, Poland)
http://www.obuam.robia.pl/uploaded4/Index_Seminum_2014_2015.pdf (Poznan, Poland)
http://botanicus.kiev.ua/Index-Seminum/index.pdf (Kyiv, Ukraine)
I suppose most or all of these got the seeds from plants cultivated in their garden.
Best wishes
Franz Starlinger
Thank you for your feedback, I very much appreciate it!
Andrew: I am also planning to buy some plants, but the cultivars available in the USA are often L. virgatum x L. salicaria, so I'm looking for some "pure" L. virgatum from a natural, native-range source.
Bir: It is amazing how many scientists can trace their specific study systems back to Darwin! Lythrum virgatum, like L. salicaria, is tristylous and another member of the hybrid complex, L. alatum, is distylous. Heterostyly makes Lythrum self-incompatible (though not strictly), which would promote outcrossing and potentially hybridization. Certainly an interesting part of the story!
Franz: What a great idea to check seed catalogues! This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, thank you so much.
Lot of information is avialbale in this area There are several books and dozens of papers ont his interesting topic right from Darwins time, It is also interestingto note that the genetics of tristyly is more complex than those of distylous species. When there is break down in the gene complex that controls this mechanisn new varients/recombinants arise in natual polpuations.
Bir, just found this paper:
Article Variation of Self-Incompatibility within Invasive Population...
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