Discovery of wild tetraploid sweetpotatoes

Specimens in the germplasm collection at the U.S. Vegetable Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Charleston, SC, were studied to examine phylogenetic relations of the tetraploid accessions inIpomoea sectionBatatas. This collection contains tetraploidsfrom a wide geographic range and most were tentatively identified by the collector asI. trifida. This study shows that corolla and sepal traits may be used to distinguish the tetraploidsfrom known specimens ofI. trifida (diploid) andI. batatas (hexaploid). All but one tetraploid accession examined (CH67.50) had corolla tubes and sepals shaped likeI. batatas and more closely resembled that species thanI. trifida. Use of corolla tube diameter allowed the hexaploidI. batatas and tetraploid accessions to be distinguished fromI. trifida because the corolla tubes were wider immediately above the calyx. Differences in sepal shape were quantified using the angle at the sepal apex. This angle was consistently obtuse in theI. batatas hexaploids and the tetraploids, but was acute in theI. trifida accessions. Due to similarities in sepal and corolla traits, these tetraploids should be reidentified as tetraploidI. batatas, a cytological race of the hexaploid I. batatas (the sweetpotato).