The Origin of Phenotype in a Recently Evolved Species

Abstract

to the ecologist, the sympatry of a newly evolved species and its progenitor is interesting because it is likely to lead to the subdivision of their habitat (Harper et al., 1961) and thereby demonstrate what minimal difference is necessary to permit cohabitation of extremely similar organisms. To the geneticist, the same juxtaposition is interesting because it reveals how the particular properties of a new species are the consequence of what was inherited from its parent, and their sympatry permits the contribution of these properties to fitness to be assessed under the same natural conditions. The coordinated study of ecological and genetic properties of such pairs of closely related species is appropriate for the synthetic discipline of plant population biology.