A Polyploid Species Complex of Spirogyra Communis (Chlorophyta) Occurring in Nature 1

Investigations were conducted to determine whether ploidal changes found in laboratory cultures of Spirogyra also occur in nature. In an earlier study filament types identifiable as three different species (Spirogyra singu‐laris Nordstedt, S. communis (Hassall)Kütz., S. fragilis Jao) arose from an original clonal culture through vegetative growth and sexual reproduction. These three “species” or filament groups differed in filament width, chloroplast number, zygospore size, and chromosome number. The differences in chromosome number represented a polyploid series of diploid (S. communis), triploid (S. fragilis), and tetraploid (S. singularis) forms in which width increased with ploidal level. The three width groups constituted a “species complex.” Five years after isolation of the original strain in this species complex, filaments corresponding to two of the width groups (S. singularis and S. communis) were found at the original collection site in the Santa Catalina Mountains in southern Arizona. The two field‐collected groups were indistinguishable from the laboratory species complex in morphology and chromosome number. Homothallic conjugation within the two field width groups yielded progeny similar to those from homothallic conjugation of groups in the laboratory species complex. Filament widths of progeny were generally within the width limits of respective parental groups. The four possible intergroup crosses between the two laboratory and two field width groups yielded progeny similar to the wider parent (S. singularis) or the parent of intermediate width (S. fragilis). Progeny characteristics were determined by the width groups of parents, regardless of whether parents came from the laboratory or field. The similarities in morphology, chromosome numbers, and reproductive behavior of laboratory and field width groups imply that the laboratory species complex of S. communis has a natural counterpart in the field.