Karyotype and Chromosome Morphology of Parthenium argentatum

Abstract

The genus Parthenium contains plants which produce latex, although only P. argentatum produces the commercially important product, rubber, in sufficiently large quantities. Parthenium forms a natural polyploid series (Stebbins and Kodani 1944, Bergner 1944) and although many meiotic studies have been conducted, little mitotic karyological data has been published. This paper presents the first mitotic karyotype and idiogram of Parthenium argentatum (2n=36). In addition, a technique for production of well spread mitotic chromosome squashes is outlined.