New evidence on the cytotaxonomy of vaccinium species as revealed by stomatal measurements from herbarium specimens

Abstract

IN an earlier paper1, we described two groups of lowbush blueberry plants, one diploid and the other tetraploid, the taxonomic status of which was in confusion. Both groups resembled Vaccinium angustifolium Ait., yet were different enough from each other to warrant separation as species. Four characters were considered to be of value in separating the two species: chromosome number, corolla-length, degree of branching, and pollen grain size. On inquiry, we found that the type specimen of V. angustifolium consists of two unbranched shoots without flowers and with unknown chromosome number. Therefore, none of our characters could be used to compare the type with our two species. Moreover, since both species occur in the locality where the type specimen was originally collected, it was impossible to identify positively the type with either of them. Although it was recognized that vegetative characters of lowbush blueberries vary greatly under different environmental conditions, such characters were the only ones that could be used in making the comparison. Since the leaves of the type specimen were similar in size to those of the tetraploid plants and larger than those of the diploid ones, we considered the tetraploid species to be V. angustifolium and the diploid one was named Vaccinium boreale sp. nov. © 1962 Nature Publishing Group.