Chromosome status of marsh marigold, Caltha palustris L. (Ranunculaceae) from Serbia

Abstract

Marsh marigold, Caltha palustris is distributed in the moist, temperate and cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere. This species exhibits considerable amount of intraspecific chromosomal diversity involving hybridization, polyploidy, aneuploidy and B chromosomes. Karyotype analyses of three mountain populations from Serbia were done for the first time. All samples were tetraploid (based number x=8) with 2n=32. In population from mountain Tara presence of one B chromosomes was detected. Tetraploid karyotype consists of 17 median-centromeric (m), 8 submedian-centromeric (sm), 7 subterminal-centromeric (st) chromosomes and one terminal-centromeric (t) B chromosome (2n= 17m+8sm+7st+1B). Studied populations in Serbia belong to the most common cytotype for this species in Europe.