Morphological and Molecular Investigation of the Parentage and Maternity of Anacamptis xalbuferensis (A. fragrans x A. robusta), a New Hybrid Orchid from Mallorca, Spain

Abstract

A new hybrid combination is reported here between two highly divergent (and taxonomically controversial) species, A. robusta (from the basally divergent A. palustris group) and A. fragrans (from the more derived A. coriophora group); this plant, originating from the Albufera wetlands in Mallorca, is here named A. xalbuferensis R.M. Bateman, nothosp. nov. Sequencing of nuclear ITS and plastid trnL regions, together with PCR-RFLP analysis of the ITS region, confirm the suspected parentage of the hybrid and identify A. fragrans as the seed-parent. Production of this hybrid is therefore inferred to have required a minimum travel distance of ca 100 m by the pollen vector from the closest presently available pollen-parent of A. robusta. As usual in orchids, the hybrid is intermediate between its parents in the majority of the 57 morphometric characters scored, but it more closely resembles its mother in three times more characters than its father. Placing this new combination in the context of other records of hybridisation in subtribe Orchidinae provides further evidence of the genetic cohesion of the genus Anacamptis, which was recently expanded to include approximately one third of the species previously assigned to Orchis s.l.