Caracterización morfológica de Phyllanthus ×pallidus (Phyllanthaceae) y sus posibles parentales en Cajálbana, Pinar del Río, Cuba

Abstract

Phyllanthus ×pallidus , of parentals P. discolor and P. comptus , is the only hybrid within the genus Phyllanthus registered for Cuba. Prior studies in the hybrid were not conclusive in the macroscopic morphology and the pollen viability, in addition to the fact that other researchers assumed P. orbicularis and P. discolor as the parents of the hybrid. The present study aimed to compare the morphological characters of the shrub species of Phyllanthus in the Sierra de Cajalbana, to corroborate the origin of P. ×pallidus and its possible parents. Collections were made in Cajalbana of P. discolor and P. ×pallidus and the data previously published in Cajalbana of P. orbicularis were taken. In the case of P. comptus , only herbarium material was used since it could not be found in the field at sampling time. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons between the different taxa in terms of vegetative and reproductive morphological characters were made. The pollen viability in the different taxa was analyzed. Morphological anomalies were found in the flowers of the hybrid and the pollen in every analyzed taxa presented a high percentage of viability. The results obtained proved that P. ×pallidus is vegetatively similar to P. orbicularis and reproductively to P. discolor , which could confirm that P. ×pallidus is a hybrid and that its most probable parents are P. orbicularis and P. discolor . Citation: Castaneda, A. & Falcon, B. 2020. Caracterizacion morfologica de Phyllanthus × pallidus ( Phyllanthaceae ) y sus posibles parentales en Cajalbana, Pinar del Rio, Cuba. Revista Jard. Bot. Nac. Univ. Habana 41: 147-161. Article history : Received: 30 July 2020. Accepted: 24 September 2020. Online: 28 December 2020. Editor: Luis M. Leyva.