Summary: | The morphology of Calamagrostis canescens and C. stricta recorded in the Małopolska Upland (the vicinity of Zbijów Mały, ca. 10 km northeast of the town of Skarżysko-Kamienna, Central Poland) was examined due to intermediate individuals found in sympatric populations of these species. Both putative parents as well as individuals that appeared hybrid-like were found in an extensive, wet hay-meadow. Various vegetative and reproductive characteristics were studied to identify hybrids. Interestingly, Polish accessions of C. ×gracilescens exhibited some degree of morphological intermediacy but resembled C. stricta in spikelet morphology. Branching of the mid-culm, the number of nodes per culm, callus hair length and relative callus hair length are the best characters to distinguish the Polish C. ×gracilescens. AFLP analysis proved to be suitable for detecting recent hybridization events between C. canescens and C. stricta. Analysis of the Bayesian clustering analysis showed that C. ×gracilescens were subjected to gene flow from the C. canescens gene pool as well as from the C. stricta gene pool.
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