Cytology of species hybrids in the Setaria sphacelata complex

Abstract

Hybrids were produced between diploid strains of Setaria anceps, S. trinervia, tetraploid strains of S. anceps and S. splendida, and hexaploid strains of all three species. Very high levels of chromosome pairing at meiosis indicate close relationship of the different species and throw doubt on the validity of their separation.

It is probable that characters from S. trinervia and S. splendida may be incorporated in the commercially useful S. anceps without too much difficulty.