Re: Plants The sixth sense

From: "Phil Bunch" pbunch at cts.com> on 2002.02.02 at 18:59:34(8141) I beg to differ here. There are well documented cases of "saltatory speciation" in annual plants at the xeric margins of their distributions. These events basically occur in one or two generations due to a combination of chromosomal translocation and founder effects in small populations. Some known examples are morphologically distinct and clearly isolated from hybridization with the parent species. These have resulted from the chance presence of genes that affect gross morphology. How many more exist that do not appear different from the parent species but which are now on a separate evolutionary path? BTW: I don't think this mechanism has been shown to occur in perennials nor would it be likely to. Phil Bunch +More ----- Original Message ----- To: "Multiple recipients of list AROID-L" Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2002 08:24 Subject: Re: Plants The sixth sense > THis time factor seems to be tripping us up in this thread. Evolution or > Natural Selection takes place over a very long time (in earth terms). Lets > take an average orchid time from seed to flower....say aprox 5years for a > fast one and about 9 or 10 years for the very slowest................ > > In 100 years you would have a possible ten generations. > In 1000 years 100 generations > In1,000,000 years 100,000 generations. > > THat's a lot of generations but, > 1 million years is still not a very long time.

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