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Page 11 · DO #963 · 319_Love_Bx1FF8r
- Collection
-
Áskell Löve (1916–1994) papers
- Item/Folder
-
"Yugoslavia"
- Digital Object
-
DO #963,
page 11
- Collection-level dates
- 1950–1987
Page transcription
10.
Most chromosome studies have been performed on plants from the arctic and subarctic belts and from the nemoral vegetation regions of western Europe, eastern North America, and eastern Asia. It is, therefore, necessary to widen such studies to include also other kinds of plants in areas less well known from this point of view, in the belief that this may not only add to our understanding of chromosomal evolution but also clarify the taxonomy of the floras of these lands as a firmer basis for phyto-geographical and practical evolutionary studies. The Mediterranean and semiarid types of floras still remain very insufficiently known in this respect, not only in Europe.
Since the flora of Yugoslavia certainly is well known, it is ideal as a subject of a consorted biosystematic study, which should aim at an evolutionary synthesis of the history of the entire flora. Such studies ought, primarily, to concentrate upon simple cytotaxonomical investigations of chromosome numbers and geographical-morphological diversity, since the results obtained from such an approach will clarify to a high degree the basic evolutionary processes that have shaped the flora and form a stable basis for its uniform classification. However, because of the assumed history of the plants of Yugoslavia and the variable conditions under which they seem to have developed, these taxa may also be better suited for cytogenetical and genetical studies of adaptive variation than are plants of any other region in Europe, not excluding those of areas directly affected by the Pleistocene glaciations. The great geographical variability of the flora also makes it ideal for an attempt to gain some understanding of the processes of evolution that are connected with various kinds of polyploidy, apomixis and, above all, autogamy and allogamy, which are phenomena of great importance from the point of view of evolutionary taxonomy. Such problems can only be solved by aid of intensive experimental studies of carefully selected species
