Inbreeding

Abstract

Inbreeding occurs if plants that are mating are, on the average, more related than random pairs of plants. A more than average relatedness of the mating plants is thus a prerequisite. Relatedness implies, of course, that the plants involved share one or more ancestors. It has already been noted in section 2.1 that mating of related plants may occur in random mating, but in that case it occurs as a matter of chance.