Summary
Samples of mature plants of Lotus corniculatus collected in natural habitats in western Europe show that the polymorphism for cyanogenesis in this species is not directly comparable with that in Trifolium repens. There is, however, a decline in the frequency of the cyanogenic form from the Netherlands to Scandinavia. It is argued that T. repens is not a satisfactory plant for studies of localised variation because of its widespread use in agriculture. Cyanogenic cultivated varieties of L. corniculatus are now regular contaminants of the grass seed sown on the edges of many new roads and consequently care must also be exercised when working with this species. Because L. corniculatus reproduces vegetatively the criteria used for sampling and estimating phenotype frequencies are discussed in detail. Some plants have the ability to change phenotype during the year and the problems this poses for population studies are explained.
Because there is no single explanation for the many examples of localised variation in the frequency of cyanogenic L. corniculatus it is argued that there is little purpose in continuing work whose principal objective is an overall hypothesis.
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Jones, D. On the polymorphism of Cyanogenesis in Lotus corniculatus L.. Heredity 39, 27–44 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1977.40
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1977.40
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