CYTOLOGIA
Online ISSN : 1348-7019
Print ISSN : 0011-4545
Cytology of the Genus Coleus
K. Ramachandran
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1967 Volume 32 Issue 3-4 Pages 474-480

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Abstract

Cytological studies of four species of Coleus indigenous to South India have been made. They are C. malabaricus (2n=28), C. spicatus (2n=30), C. amboinicus (2n=34) and C. payvifloyus (2n=68). The chromosomes are small in all these species.
Meiosis is regular in C. malabaricus, C. spicatus and C. amboinicus. It is very irregular in the cultivated species, C. payviflorus, forming varying numbers of quadrivalents, trivalents, bivalents and univalents. The species is possibly an autotetraploid.
The chromosome numbers of eleven species known in the genus (n=6, 8, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 24) indicate that a still larger diversity in basic numbers, as reported in some other genera of the Labiateae, can be expected in Coleus also. Aneuploidy and amphidiploidy appear to have played important roles in the evolution of the genus.

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© The Japan Mendel Society
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