Tzanoudakis
Cytotaxonomic Study of the Genus Pueonia L. in Greece (Patras, 27 April 1977).
The results of combined cytological and taxonomic study based on extensive field work and collecting by Tzanoudakis are given in his thesis Cytotaxonomic Study of the Genus Pueonia L. in Greece (Patras, 27 April 1977). It is regrettable that this detailed study was not published fully in English, French or German, instead of only in Greek with a very concise English summary, as it makes a valuable contribution to understanding of the Greek peonies. Tzanoudakis studied cytologically 34 populations. The individuals of each population were either diploid (2n:2x:20) or tetraploid (2n:4x:40). Diploid as well as tetraploid populations were found in P. mascula and P. clusii, whereas all populations of P. peregrina and P. parnassica were tetraploid. However diploid plants of P. peregrina have been found in Jugoslavia which do not differ morphologically from the tetraploids. In this work Tzanoudakis described the peony with dark red flowers long known from Mount Parnassos as a new species, P. parnassica, and the white-flowered peonies of the P. mascula complex as subsp. hellenica and subsp. icarica. In the present work we have accepted these taxa mostly at the ranks assigned by Tzanoudakis but have maintained P. rhodia as specifically distinct from P. clusii and have united P. mascula subsp. hellenica and subsp. icarica.
Subsp. russi (2n:10), a diploid, was first recognised in Greece by Tzanoudakis (1977), from the Ionian Islands and western Greece, an eastern extension of a disjunct island range on Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily; indeed, it might be considered a relict Central Mediterranean subspecies (Fig. 24).
Tzanoudakis's Cytotaxonomic Study of the Genus Paeonia in Greece (1977) provides a critical assessment of the origin and relationships of the tetraploid peonies. Here he states that "According to the cytological data, the tetraploids of P. clusii (eastern Kriti) should be considered as autotetraploids derived from diploids of the same species; such diploids occur today in western Kriti and Karpathos. On the contrary, the tetraploids of P. mascula, P. parnassica and P. peregrina should be considered as allopolyploids derived as follows: a) Those of P. mascula (subsp. mascula, subsp. icarica and subsp. hellenica) from a cross of P. mascula subsp. russi with P. clusii or from a cross between their ancestors or their autotetraploid derivatives, b) Those of P. parnassica from a cross between autotetraploid derivatives of P. mascula subsp. russi and P. peregrina. The origin of P. peregrina remains problematic; although cytologically it resembles an allopolyploid, diploid plants have been discovered in Jugoslavia with no morphological differences from the tetraploids (Sopova 1971)."
The lack of discernible differences between peony populations of the same subspecies which have been isolated over very long periods of time exemplifies "the evolutionary standstill which affects the bulk of the Aegean relict species" noted by Greuter (1979).
From the book:
Peonies of Greece
A taxonomic and historical Survey of the Genus Paeonia in Greece
William T. Stearn and Peter H. Davis