Re: Aroid breeding problems

**&* <m*@hctc.com>**

> I know this may open a box of worms, but I am curious if
> these plants  are said to evolve from one another then why
> are these barricades even  present? I can see this being
> more difficult for other genus but for  different species
> it seems very odd. You would think more genus crosses 
> would be more frequent and not as rare as they seem to be
> as well.  Just  my thoughts.
> 
That is part of the speciation process.  As long as two
forms are still interfertile, someone can argue they are
still the same species.  Two subspecies become two species
when they lose the ability to interbreed.

As far as evolution, actually very little of it is the
result of hybridization.  Rather the opposite: two
populations become isolated, and accumulate different
mutations in the different locations.  This acumulation of
mutations eventually makes them different enough that they
can no longer interbreed -- at which time we say they have
speciated.

Jason Hernandez
Naturalist-at-Large
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