Re: apogamy
Isn't it like the alleged dichotomy between ants and grasshoppers?
Apogamy is a quicker easier more reliable way to reproduce. If the object
is to compete with other species (when is it not?), quicker reproduction
might be just the advantage needed to take over whatever habitat is
available.
Until much later, when conditions change, and the apogamous plant is stuck
in a shallow gene pool, with fewer options for adaptation.
Some plants "choose" one approach, some the other. The really clever ones
do both.
For most hybrids it seems even more clearly advantageous to be apogamous,
as gamous isn't even an option. Either limit one's existence to the
happenstance co-occurence of two parent gametes, or rely on vegetative
spread.
It is my impression that the hybrid polypody P. appalachianum x
virginianum is more populouse in the Blue Hills near Boston MA than either
parent. Surely apogamy must play some role. Even that seems an
inadequate explanation to me.
Don Lubin
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