Intra-Specific Diversity in a Natural Population of Trifolium Repens

Abstract

SUMMARY (1) The results of an investigation of the range of diversity found in a single population of the obligate outbreeding species Trifolium repens L. in North Wales are presented, together with a consideration of the ways in which the variability uncovered may be maintained in the face of potential habitat dominance by a single successful genotype replicating rapidly through clonal growth. (2) The degree of variability found within this single population for a range of biochemical, morphological and phenological characters was of a magnitude more commonly encountered in comparisons between populations taken from distinctly different environments. Nearly every clone was found to differ significantly from every other clone in at least one character. (3) The applicability of the concept of sisyphean fitness, and the suggestion that the genotypes successful in the field are those which have achieved near-maximum fitness through an interaction of a momentarily effective combination of genes and the individual's history, are considered with respect to T. repens.