apomictic microspecies

[SKÁLA Zdenek]

-----Original Message-----
From: Torbjörn Tyler [mailto:Torbjorn.Tyler at SYSBOT.LU.SE]

>One may further agrue that since apomictic taxa do not exchange genes they are more like biological >species than like subspecies, however, that would be the case for any clonal group of organism...

Um, the problem is that *any* grouping of individuals within an apomictic taxon (say, grouping consisting of one individual of Hieracium murorum, one of H. lachenalii, one of H. graniticum) is "reproductively isolated" in this way. Evidently, fully apomictic groups cannot be structured by means of gene-exchange criteria.

>Yes, there are certainly several different traditions and schools concerning the rank of apomictic 
>micro-species. In the Nordic countries and the UK such taxa have for long generally been regarded as >species, however, on the European continent the tradition have been, and partly still is, to treat them >as infraspecific taxa.

In the Czech countries, the tradition of Hieracium microspecies started programmatically in 1828; still I believe, we *are* on the European continent ;-)

Best regards!
Zdenek Skala