Cytotaxonomic Relationships of Some Taxa of Egyptian Allium L

Abstract

The cytological features of 10 taxa belonging to 7 species of Allium L. have been investigated. These species are A. ampeloprasum, A. arvense, A. barthianum, A. curium and A. mareoticum from section Allium of subgenus Allium, and A. blomfieldianum and A. roseum from section Molium of subgenus Allium. The cytological results revealed a basic chromosome number of x=8 in all the investigated taxa. Diploid chromosome number of 2n=16 has been recorded in two taxa of A. barthianum, one taxon of A. blomfieldianum and one taxon of A. roseum. The triploid number of 2n=24 has been encountered in a sample of A. roseum. In one sample of A. barthianum, however, 3 B chromosomes have been detected. Tetraploid number of 2n=32 has been recorded in the other four species. The karyotypes of A. arvense, A. barthianum, A. blomfieldianum, A. curium and A. mareoticum are described here for the first time. The cytological and taxonomic relationships of the investigated species are discussed in the text.