GENECOLOGICAL STUDIES OF URTICA DIOICA L.

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Abstract
Summary: Urtica dioica L. shows considerable variation in several characters, including stinging hair density. Members of a particular population found at Wicken Fen are remarkable in that they bear almost no stinging hairs, are tall, unbranched, narrow‐leaved, and late‐flowering. Experimental cultivation of samples from Wicken and a number of other populations showed that:(i) Plants retain many of their distinctive features in cultivation.(ii) Some of the variation is apparently heritable.(iii) There are significant differences between and within populations and between staminate and pistillate plants.(iv) Plants differ in their patterns of phenotypic plasticity.The complexity of variation examined here renders infraspecific taxonomy difficult, but provides a fertile area for research on the ecological and evolutionary significance of variation in U. dioica.