Morphological Observations and Chromosome Numbers in Trifolium L. Section Chronosemium Ser

Abstract

Chromosome number and morphology have differentiated in section Chronosemium independently of general morphology or longevity. Series of x=7 and x=8 exist and the only polyploid is T. dubium (2n=28). The yellow-green seeds of T. aureum and T. badium, both in the x=8 series are distinctively different from other species of the section. Including the chromsome number of T. boissieri reported for the first time here, the total number of species of section Chronosemium for which numbers have been determined is now 12, with a total of 192 species determined for the entire genus Trifolium, a genus of perhaps 250 species. Care should be exercised with respect to names supplied on seed packets. It is evident that a large percentage of seed sources are either misidentified or do not employ recent nomenclature.