Talamali Amel, Gorenflot Robert, Dutuit Pierre
Laboratoire d'écotechnologie, université Paris-Sud, 1, allée Cérès, 91440 Bures-sur-Yvette, France.
C R Biol. 2007 Dec;330(12):871-9. doi: 10.1016/j.crvi.2007.09.003. Epub 2007 Nov 19.
Classically, the Atriplex halimus L. female flower is perianthless, has two bracteoles, one ovary and one style. Considering bracteoles, one can distinguish, among the representatives of two Tunisian populations, three phenotypes of female flowers, each of them being distributed in three types according to the style length. Male flowers produce three types of pollen. This is the only known example of intra-individual heterostyly in unisexual flowers. These results question the classical concept of individual. The authors discuss a possible process implying indirectly hybridisation and introgression between A. halimus and A. nummularia.